The Associated Press’ most striking images from nature in 2025 show existence as fragile as an albino turtle hatchling among its peers or a cicada’s translucent wings.

Beyond the headlines and sometimes dangerous human impacts on their worlds, animals and other creatures persist.

A polar bear sprawls outside an abandoned research station on an island off Russia, surrounded by grass, not snow.

A raccoon eats peanuts on a boardwalk in Panama City.

Sheep are herded through central Madrid.

The photos show a world without us and without borders, one of extraordinary beauty in the everyday.

A hummingbird is poised to sip from a flower.

A pollen-flecked ladybug explores a dandelion.

A humpback whale surfaces with a splash.

All things end. An insect is trapped in a glistening carnivorous plant. Vultures fly over an unseen carcass in India. Eagles clash while hunting.

And then, as a baby bird peeks from among its parents’ feathers, life begins again.

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Photo editing by Courtney Dittmar and Anne-Marie Belgrave.