A spectacular showcase of animal pictures from 2025
Our visual highlights from the animal world this year include a mouse caring for its companion, dolphins communicating in an unexpected way and a colossal squid caught on camera for the first time
Life
Our visual highlights from the animal world this year include a mouse caring for its companion, dolphins communicating in an unexpected way and a colossal squid caught on camera for the first time
By Carissa Wong
10 December 2025
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Hang in there
Wenjian Sun et al. 2025
This mouse is seemingly trying to revive its unconscious cage mate by tugging at its tongue to clear its airways. Researchers discovered that, when presented with an anaesthetised mouse, some mice act like tiny first-aiders and paw, groom and bite the unresponsive mouse, suggesting that care-giving behaviour is more common in the animal kingdom than we thought.
How high can you shoot?
Claryana Araújo-Wang/Botos do Cerrado Research Project/CetAsia Research Group
A male Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) is captured rolling on its back to fire a jet of urine into the air. This bizarre behaviour seems to send messages to other dolphins, possibly in a similar way to how land mammals use scent marking, with other males appearing to seek out the urine as it falls back to the water.
