Scientist discovers a cast of recurring characters using burrows in the aftermath of bushfire, after sifting through more than 700,000 images

First came a picture of an inquisitive red-necked wallaby, then an image of a bare-nosed wombat, followed by a couple of shots of the wombat’s burrow with nothing else in the frame.

By the time research scientist Grant Linley had looked through a further 746,670 images, he had seen 48 different species visiting the 28 wombat burrows that he had trained his cameras on.

The best of this week’s wildlife photographs from around the world

Hotline set up in Japan’s capital to report sightings of raccoons, which became popular as pets after success of 1970s TV anime series

Having won the battle to tackle Tokyo’s population of giant, ravenous crows, the city’s authorities are now embroiled in an even tougher campaign: to rein in another animal menace, the North American raccoon.

The number of raccoons caught in the capital every year has increased fivefold over the past decade, according to media reports, amid concern about the damage the animals are inflicting on the local ecosystem.

Reduction in insect numbers contributes to drop, and there are declines across more than a third of bird species surveyed

Swallows, swifts and house martins were once a common sight over UK towns and cities, dextrously catching insects on the wing. But these spring and summer visitors are becoming increasingly rare, according to the definitive survey of the country’s birds.

Populations of these insect-eating birds have dropped by 40% or more in the past decade, according to the latest Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) report.