A swimmer competes in Le Defi Monte-Cristo (Monte Cristo Challenge) swimming event at the Chateau d'If, off the coast of Marseille, southern France, on June 21, 2019. Created in 1999 and inspired by Alexandre Dumas' character of Edmond Dantes, the Monte Cristo Challenge will take place from June 21 to 23, 2019. (Photo by Boris Horvat/AFP Photo)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)

Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

Climate change activist Greta Thunberg reacts during a news conference during COP25 climate summit in Madrid, Spain, December 9, 2019. (Photo by Juan Medina/Reuters)

Colombian activists perform during a protest against violence towards women, on a street in Medellin, Colombia, on March 6, 2020. (Photo by Joaquín Sarmiento/AFP Photo)

People wearing masks and carrying supplies walk past a mannequin wearing a mask in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, March 14, 2020. Spain's prime minister has announced a two-week state of emergency from Saturday in a bid to contain the new coronavirus outbreak. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some, it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

Mae Muller of the United Kingdom performs during dress rehearsals at the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool, England, Wednesday, May 10, 2023. (Photo by Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

Youths pose for a photo, while doing their homework in an area once home to chop houses, where gangs dismembered enemies, but is now a “humanitarian space” in Buenaventura, Colombia, Wednesday, August 16, 2023. (Photo by Fernando Vergara/AP Photo)