Nose to Nose; Human/Nature winner. “Doug Gimesy was documenting work at the Joey and Bat Sanctuary near Melbourne when he met a wombat (Vombatus ursinus) whose mother had been killed by a car. Gimesy watched as a young veterinary student bottle-fed the orphaned joey, then touched her nose to the joey’s in a tender moment of interspecies bonding”. (Photo by Doug Gimesy/BigPicture)

An elephant in Amboseli National Park in Kenya, June 2021. Gurcharan Roopra, 42, a Nairobi-born engineer-turned-wildlife photographer, has dedicated the past four years of his career to photographing these animals. He spends hours in his workshop camouflaging and encasing his equipment with protective gear before laying his camera in the path of lions, elephants, rhino, zebra and buffalo. (Photo by Gurcharan Roopra/Mercury Press)

Vegetarian 19-year-old model Courtney Stodden gets ready to serve veggie hot dogs wearing a lettuce bikini during a People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) free veggie dog handout on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, July 16, 2014. (Photo by Jim Watson/AFP Photo)

Breath of an Arctic fox by Marco Gaiotti, Italy. Marco was watching this little Arctic fox as it incessantly called another nearby. Gradually he noticed the fox’s wet breath was quickly freezing in the air after each call. It was late winter in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, and the air was -35C (-31F). Photographing Arctic foxes is often frustrating, as they are normally running around fast in search of food, but this one was very relaxed and let Marco get close enough to focus on it, with the light glowing perfectly in the background. (Photo by Marco Gaiotti/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021)

Bo, a 55-day-old baby Echidna known as a puggle, rests in the hands of vet nurse Annabelle Sehlmeier at Taronga Zoo in Sydney November 1, 2012. The puggle was brought to the zoo after it being found by itself on a walking track north of Sydney and will be fed by hand until it is weaned at about six months of age. (Photo by Tim Wimborne/Reuters)

Young Japanese women dressed in colourful Kimonos take a photo of themselves as they gather for a ceremony marking the “Coming of Age Day” at the Toshimaen Amusement Park in Tokyo, Japan, 11 January 2016. The Coming of Age Day is the day to celebrate young people who turn 20 years old while the age of 20 is considered the beginning of adulthood and is the minimum legal age for voting, drinking and smoking in Japan. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/EPA)

A tomtit bird flies past a squirrel running on a fence after a snowfall in a park in Almaty, Kazakhstan, January 12, 2016. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

This bat gives a cheeky smile as he gobbles down his food at Singapore Zoo, on September 10, 2013. (Photo by Benny Iskander/HotSpot Media)