In Pictures: Animal antics lift spirits during difficult year

The UK in 2020 has been a very different place for all of us but life in the animal kingdom went on as usual.

The UK in 2020 has been a very different place for us all but life in the animal kingdom went on as usual, whether in the wild or in captivity.

And pictures of what our furry and feathered friends have been up to helped to lift many spirits during the difficult times. Here are some highlights from the year:

January

Sea Otters to come to Birmingham — New year, new home… Alaskan sea otter Ozzy, who was brought to the UK from a centre in Alaska, settles in at the National Sea Life Centre in Birmingham (Jacob King/PA)

February

Blair Drummond lion cubs — We all need check-ups… A young lion cub undergoes a vet inspection at Blair Drummond Safari Park near Stirling (Andrew Milligan/PA)

March

Baby elephant at Chester zoo — Chester Zoo shows off baby Asian elephant Riva Hi Way (Peter Byrne/PA)

Britain’s oldest penguin — Celebrations take place behind closed doors to mark the 30th birthday of Rosie, one of the Humboldt penguins at Sewerby Hall in Bridlington (Danny Lawson/PA)

May

Nesting woodpecker — A great spotted woodpecker, one of a mating pair, flies off to forage for food for its chick inside a tree trunk in woods near Bristol (Ben Birchall/PA)

June

Coronavirus – Mon Jun 29, 2020 — Two giraffes poke their heads out from their enclosure as Blair Drummond Safari Park welcomes visitors back with Scotland beginning to ease out of lockdown (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Cheetah cubs at Colchester Zoo — Two of four cheetah cubs born to mother Sia at Colchester Zoo. The females were named Nova, Hope and Star to honour the work of the NHS, and the male was named Tom, after fundraising veteran Captain Sir Tom Moore (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

ZSL London Zoo annual weigh-in — Meerkats ‘help’ with the annual weigh-in at ZSL London Zoo (Kirsty O’Connor/PA)

September

Baby gorilla born at Bristol Zoo — A baby gorilla born at Bristol Zoo Gardens is given the name Hasani – which means ‘handsome’ in Swahili – following a public vote (Katie Horrocks/PA)

Grey seal pupping season — A grey seal with her newborn pup on the beach at Horsey in Norfolk, one the UK’s most important sites for the mammals (Joe Giddens/PA)

November

Starling Murmuration — A murmuration of starlings at dusk over Catterick, North Yorkshire, draws crowds of onlookers (Owen Humphreys/PA)

December

Christmas at the Wildwood Trust — A Eurasian lynx investigates an early Christmas present as part of an enrichment programme at wildlife conservation charity Wildwood Trust in Kent (Gareth Fuller/PA)