蓝色大闪蝶 Blue Morpho Butterfly

这张蓝色大闪蝶的特写照片显示了其独一无二的梦幻色彩。这种惹人注目的昆虫产自中北美地区的热带雨林。它们的这种钴蓝色并非来自色素，而是其翅膀上成千上万的半透明鳞片，这些鳞片可以滤出可见光中的蓝光，并使之从翅膀上散发出来。
Photograph by Cary Wolinsky
A close-up of a mounted blue morpho butterfly shows its unique iridescent sheen. These mesmerizing insects, indigenous to the rain forests of Central and South America, get their cobalt hue not from pigment but from the thousands of semitransparent scales that filter blue from the visible spectrum and radiate it out from the wings.
海豹 Leopard Seal Underwater, Antarctica

一只斑海豹正在碧蓝的海水中畅游，水面上则是一大块隐现在背景中的南极浮冰。著名的1914年沙克尔顿探险队中的一名成员称斑海豹为“凶猛的帅哥”，其为南极地区的顶级食肉动物：迅猛，敏捷，贪食，并且壮硕。斑海豹身长可达12英尺(4米)，体重超过一千镑(450公斤)。
Photograph by Paul Nicklen
A leopard seal swims in turquoise waters just below the surface as a jagged Antarctic ice floe looms in the background.The leopard seal, dubbed a “fierce, handsome brute” by a member of the famed 1914 Shackleton expedition, is a top Antarctic predator: fast, agile, voracious, and large, reaching some 12 feet (4 meters) in length and weighing more than a thousand pounds (450 kilograms).
塘鹅 Cape Gannets, Malgas Island, South Africa

在南非的西海岸国家公园，马尔哈斯岛的岩石海岸上有着许多塘鹅的窝，塘鹅是一种身披白衫，头戴金冠的鸟。世界自然保护联盟已将这种美丽的海鸟登录在册。因为很容易受到外界影响，这种鸟类几乎只存在于非洲海岸。马尔哈斯岛上有将近70,000只塘鹅，一起分享着这片常有油轮经过的水域。
Photograph by Chris Johns
Dressed in snow-white plumage and golden crowns, a colony of cape gannets nests on the rocky coast of Malgas Island in South Africa’s West Coast National Park. The World Conservation Union lists these graceful shorebirds, found almost exclusively in coastal Africa, as vulnerable. The 70,000 cape gannets of Malgas Island share their waters with scores of oil tankers.
黑鹿 Sambar Deer, Madhya Pradesh, India

在印度的斑德哈瓦加国家公园，一头黑鹿正在水源边上饮水，这张照片是由遥控摄影机拍摄的。黑鹿是世界上分布最广泛的鹿类之一，遍布于东南亚的森林里。在这座以虎闻名的公园中，它常成为老虎的猎物。
Photograph by Michael Nichols
Caught in the act by a remote camera trap, a sambar deer drinks from a water source in Bandhavgarh National Park, India. One of the most widely distributed deer species in the world, sambars live in forests throughout Southeast Asia and are favorite prey of tigers, for which this park is known.