Actors Ma Sichun (L) and Zhou Dongyu pose backstage after both won the Best Leading Actress award for their movie “Soul Mate” at the 53rd Golden Horse Film Awards in Taipei, Taiwan November 26, 2016. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

Esau the ape at the piano. (Photo by Reinhold Thiele/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images). Circa 1900

Children feed a giraffe at Pairi Daiza wildlife park, a zoo and botanical garden in Brugelette, Belgium, May 25, 2015. (Photo by Francois Lenoir/Reuters)

Recycling artist Nicolas Gomez checks the strings of a cello he has made out of an oil barrel for the Orchestra of Recycled Instruments of Cateura, in Cateura, Paraguay February 13, 2015. Saudi Arabia's oil exports have risen in February in response to stronger demand from customers. As OPEC's top producer battles for market share Reuters photographers around the globe have been photographing oil barrels to document how they are utilised once the fuel has been used. (Photo by Jorge Adorno/Reuters)

British rally driver Kris Meeke jumps his Citroen over a brow during the fifth special stage of the World Rally Championship (WRC) Rally of Australia, near Bellingen on the New South Wales central coast on September 12, 2014. (Photo by William West/AFP Photo)

For her series “Japanese Whispers”, Belgian photographer Zaza Bertrand headed inside the intimate world of rabuhos – Japanese love hotels. Love hotels became popular in Japan from the 1960s onwards, due to a lack of privacy in many family homes. There are now around 37,000 of these hotels in Japan, allowing short daytime “rests” or overnight stays. (Photo by Zaza Bertrand/The Guardian)

CHINA: Customers eat at a restaurant as a cooked pig sits on a cart on the street outside in Hong Kong, China, December 12, 2016. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)