Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

American singer-songwriter Madonna nearly bares it all while partying after the Fashion Awards with English singer Dua Lipa and photographer Mert Alas on November 29, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Instagram)

Two monitor lizards wrestle at Singapore Botanic Gardens on February 7, 2022. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Vervet monkeys Higgins, left, and Andor fight playfully atop a car in the Park 'N Fly parking lot which lies adjacent to the swampy mangrove preserve where the monkey colony lives, Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Dania Beach, Fla. For 70 years, a group of non-native monkeys has made their home next to a South Florida airport runway, delighting visitors and becoming local celebrities. (Photo by Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo)

English actress Danielle Harold shot exclusively for the Sun on Sunday, May 7, 2023 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Olivia West/News Group Newspapers Ltd via The Sun)

A tern chased away a ghost crab that was threatening its chicks at a beach near Fort Myers, Florida in the last decade of June 2023, before feeding them with freshly caught fish. (Photo by Judy Rogero/Solent News)

A model presents creations from the 2023 Spring/Summer collection by Japanese designer Lim Asafuji for the label “pays des fees” during the Tokyo Fashion Week in Tokyo, Japan, 01 September 2022. The presentation of the 2023 Spring/Summer collections runs from 29 August to 03 September. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

During a jungle survival program February 20, 2013 taught by Royal Thai Special Forces in Sannapit, Thailand, U.S. Marines learned to catch cobras and drink their fresh blood, not to mention eat forest insects and pull the heads off of chicken. The training was part of Operation Cobra Gold 13, the 32nd edition of international military exercises hosted by the Thai. According to a U.S. Marines press release, Cobra Gold is the largest exercise of its kind in Asia and incorporates troops from five other nations in addition to the U.S. and Thailand. The Daily Mail reports that the Marines were invited to experience the local custom of drinking cobra blood after being taught to catch and kill cobras in the wild. As CNN notes, Cobra blood is believed to be a panacea and aphrodiasic in parts of Southeast Asia. In Jakarta, vendors can earn over $100 a night selling shots of cobra blood mixed with liquor. (Photo by Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP Photo)