Wiltshire in Pictures: Animal encounters

Jon Durrant captured these three young kingfishers in Bradford-on-Avon
- Published
It's all been about the natural world this week, with animals from current times and ancient history.
There's a new resident at Longleat, and an extensive dig at Cerney Wick has come to an end.
Wiltshire's farmers have been in the focus this week as part of a national campaign to tell the stories of rural life.
All this is mixed in with the usual scenes of beautiful landscapes from across the county.

Stripy summer: Longleat has welcomed male zebra at Zigzag at the safari park. He is there for a summer holiday from Hamerton Zoo park in Cambridgeshire. It is hoped he can help start a new bloodline with their three mares - although they have been seen to give him a telling off from time to time.

Beaming for Bemerton: Wiltshire Council has been celebrating the numerous community projects that have been happening at Bemerton Heath, Salisbury. The initiative currently has an exhibition on display at Five Rivers Health and Wellbeing Centre, but there has also been a community garden, new groups and supermarket transport started.

Democratic naming: 'Meryl Sweep' has appeared around Warminster after residents helped name Warminster Town Council's new sweeper - the name got more than more than 47% of the votes.

Best of British: the themed trail is on around Malmesbury at the moment - Shakespeare and Postman Pat are on the list to spot, but there's a night-time look for the red arrow display outside the Old Bell Hotel.

A mammoth task: a three-week palaeontology dig has just come to an end at Cerney Wick, at Cotswold Water Park. Involving more than 200 volunteers, the site is known as the mammoth graveyard, but also yields numerous other ice age giants, Neanderthal tools and 160 million years old fossils. This bone is from a mammoth.

International ties: Amesbury has now been officially twinned with a town of the same name in Massachusetts in the USA. The Wiltshire town's mayor Monica Devendran, was joined by her US counterpart Kassandra Gove for the celebrations.

Farmwatch: Wiltshire had a star role in the BBC's Farmwatch day on 7 August as Robin Aird - a farmer near Malmesbury - had his work on show for combine cam. The day saw lots of insights into the farming community.

Moody skies: Weather Watcher Angie sun caught the changeable weather at Porton with this snap of golden crops below some menacing cloud.
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