Michael Olivant, a Times reader, saw a chance to contribute when a Dalmatian pelican landed on his wife’s head at Lake Kerkini in northern Greece in the first decade of February 2025. (Photo by Michael Olivant/The Times)

Maudy – Kalulushi, Zambia. Maudy was born in a hut in a small village close to Kalulushi, in Zambia. She grew up playing in the street with the other children in the village, who all attend the same school, where students ages 3 to 10 years old are in the same class. The village has no shops, restaurants or hotels, and just a few children are lucky enough to have toys. Maudy and her friends found a box full of sunglasses on the street, which quickly became their favorite toys. “Toy Stories” project. (Photo and caption by Gabriele Galimberti)

A pair of macaques check themselves out in the rear view mirror of a motorbike in Chandigarh, India in the last decade of August 2024. (Photo by Anuj Jain/Media Drum Images)

Lancaster Gate station displays signage after being rebranded “Ratchet and Clankaster Gate” as the PS5 goes on sale in the UK, on November 19, 2020 in London, England. The first generational upgrade to Sony's line of Playstation consoles since 2013, the launch has seen pre-orders sell out within hours and websites crash as retailers attempt to keep up with demand. (Photo by Alex Davidson/Getty Images)

A white-throated kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) sits over a tree in a field in Lahore, Pakistan, 26 March 2021. The most familiar Kingfisher species can be observed perched on branches or walls while on the lookout for grubs, insects and even fish in streams or garden ponds. (Photo by Rahat Dar/EPA/EFE)

A student poses with her painted face, ahead of New Year celebrations at a college in Chennai on December 28, 2024. (Photo by R. Satish Babu/AFP Photo)

A child dressed in a Santa Claus costume reacts, on the day Palestinian Christians attend an Orthodox Christmas Mass at the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City on January 7, 2025. (Photo by Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)

Kea are the only true alpine parrots in the world and thrive as cunning opportunists in the freezing conditions of the Southern Alps. Kea are thought to have developed their wide array of food-finding strategies during the last great ice age, where they learned to adapt using their unusual powers of curiosity. (Photo by Tom Walker/BBC Pictures/The Guardian)