A boy sits on the back of a crocodile on May 19, 2018 at a pond in Bazoule in Burkina Faso, a village which happily shares its local pond with “sacred” crocodiles. Crocodiles may be one of the deadliest hunters in the animal kingdom, but in a small village in Burkina Faso it is not unusual to see someone sitting atop one of the fearsome reptiles. According to local legend, the startling relationship with the predators dates back to at least the 15 th century. The village was in the grip of an agonising drought until the crocodiles led women to a hidden pond where the population could slake their thirst. (Photo by Olympia de Maismont/AFP Photo)

Bonobo apes, primates unique to Congo and humankind's closest relative, groom one another at a sanctuary just outside the capital Kinshasa, Congo on October 31, 2006. (Photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

A keeper feeds a four-week-old jaguar while presenting it to the media, at a zoo in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, October 14, 2015. (Photo by Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)

Children play on top of a cargo ship that was swept during the onslaught of Typhoon Haiyan in Tacloban city in central Philippines November 2, 2015, ahead of the second anniversary of a devastating typhoon that killed more than 6,000 people in central Philippines. The front part of the ship was retained in the area and made into a memorial and will be inaugurated on November 8 to commemorate the second anniversary of Typhoon Haiyan. (Photo by Erik De Castro/Reuters)

The sun rises over the River Brue on the Somerset Levels as temperatures in parts of the south west drop below freezing, on January, 20, 2015. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Wire)

Vladimir Putin shows a hold to a young judo wrestler at the Regional Judo Center at the Arena Sports Complex in the Siberian city of Kemerovo on January 24, 2012, during his visit to the region. Putin is known for his passion for judo, in which he has a black belt. (Photo by AFP Photo/STR)

An alpaca chewing a leaf is pictured on November 18, 2014 in the zoo of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst/AFP Photo/DPA)

Beautiful, strange and occasionally alarming pictures from the shortlist for this year’s Wellcome image awards – which celebrate the very best in science photography and imaging – from an x-ray of a bat to a micrograph of a kidney stone. The exhibition opens on 12 March at three science centres and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Photo: Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of an Arabidopsis thaliana flower, also commonly known as thale cress. Some of the anthers are open, revealing pollen grains ready for dispersal. Arabidopsis was the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced and is widely used as a model organism in molecular and plant biology. Horizontal width of image is 1200 microns. Magnification 100x. (Photo by Stefan Eberhard/Wellcome Images)