In The News: BBC Wildlife Photography Awards and Formula-e

In the modern era, environmental news is high on the agenda for most organisations that report anything and everything from localised shrinking bee colonies to global climate change that affects almost everyone in the world. With so many different stories spanning the front pages and being in the headlines, we have collected a few of our top environmental and animal news stories from the week.

The British Wildlife Photography awards were recently announced with a handful of winners having been selected from thousands of entries from all over the country. The overall winner was Lee Acaster from Wortham in Suffolk with his strikingly emotive image of a Greylag Goose on the bank of the River Thames, showing the iconic Shard in the background. Find out more on the BBC News website.

The sad and unfortunate news that the founder of an elephant sanctuary in Maine was accidentally crushed to death by the animals has shaken the animal world. According to a statement from the local Sheriff's Office, Jim Laurita was carrying out routine tasks tending to the elephants when he fell and banged his head on a cement floor, an incident that was followed by one of the elephants accidentally stepping on him. Click here for the full story.

An area of the West Highlands in Scotland has been deemed as now being free from feral cats, providing much needed hope for the future of Scottish Wildcats in the area. Fieldwork results published by WildCat Haven suggests that feral cats in the area have either been removed or neutered ensuring that the population of pure-bred Scottish Wildcats is now safe from interspecies breeding. Visit the WildCat Haven website to find out more about these results and Scottish Wildcats in general.

WWF has just announced the launch of it's second year of the Arctic Home campaign. They have teamed up with the Coca-Cola Company to try and raise both funds and awareness to help protect the natural habitats of Polar Bears and to "create a positive future for the Arctic". According to their website, the Arctic Home campaign will continue to build on the success resonating from last year when the Coca-Cola Company committed 1 million euros which supported essential research in the area. Click here for more information about the campaign.

And finally, big news this week for the world of motorsport as the new racing series, Formula-e, is set to see it's first ever race around the streets of Beijing on Saturday 13th September. These battery powered Formula 1 style race cars are an enormous positive step towards the development of motorsport in a more environmentally conscious world. In it's first season, the 10 different races will be held in some of the world's most iconic cities including Long Beach in LA and ending with a dramatic finale around the city of London. For more information about this exciting advancement in the world of motorsport, please visit the FIA website.