Animal rights activists protest against the use of animal leather in fashion businness, a few days before the fashion week opening in Milan, Italy, 16 September 2018. (Photo by Matteo Bazzi/EPA/EFE)

Bloodthirsty by Thomas P. Peschak, Germany/South Africa — winner, Behaviour: birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds. The finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up, so they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave their nests the boobies tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Victoria of Bulgaria performs during the second semi-final of the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands, May 20, 2021. (Photo by Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters)

A volunteer holds the peak of a flamingo chick after it was fitted with an identity ring at a lagoon in the Fuente de Piedra natural reserve near Malaga, southern Spain, July 30, 2022. (Photo by Jon Nazca/Reuters)

Amal Amro, the Palestinian-Syrian owner, and an employee give a cat medicine at 'Amal Pets Hotel' in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern Kurdish autonomous region, on August 24, 2022. (Photo by Safin Hamed/AFP Photo)

A woman takes a selfie photo by the “Friendship of Nations” fountain at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (VDNKh) in Moscow on October 5, 2023. The fountain was installed at the All-Russia Exhibition Centre (VDNKh), a trade show and amusement park, in 1954, with 16 gilded bronze sculptures of young women representing 16 republics of the USSR around the oval fountain bowl featuring a wheat sheaf. (Photo by Alexander Nemenov/AFP Photo)

Picture dated October 8th, 2022 shows Patrouille Suisse, the official Swiss Air Force jet aerobatic display team flying at Duxford Flying Finale in Cambridgeshire, the final airshow of the season. (Photo by Caroline Haycock/Bav Media)

A horse handler poses with a horse during a beach parade at Muizenberg beach, in Cape Town, South Africa on January 5, 2024. (Photo by Esa Alexander/Reuters)