In this Thursday, December 1, 2016 photo, Cat Bigney, part of the Oglala Native American tribe, waits on the shore of the Cannonball river for travelers to arrive by canoe at the Oceti Sakowin camp where people have gathered to protest the Dakota Access oil pipeline in Cannon Ball, N.D. So far, those at the camp have shrugged off the heavy snow, icy winds and frigid temperatures. But if they defy next week's government deadline to abandon the camp, demonstrators know the real deep freeze lies ahead. Life-threatening wind chills and towering snow drifts could mean the greatest challenge is simple survival. (Photo by David Goldman/AP Photo)

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)

A pregnant woman poses on June 19, 2018 in Vertou, western France. France had an estimated population of 68.4 million by January 1, 2024, representing a further year-on-year increase of 0.3 percent, limited by a marked drop in the birth rate, the INSEE national statistics bureau of France reported on January 16, 2024. In 2023, 678,000 babies were born in France, 6.6 percent fewer than the previous year, the lowest number of births in any year since 1946. Over the same period, there were 631,000 deaths, down 6.5 percent on 2022, a year marked by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and episodes of extreme heat. (Photo by Loic Venance/AFP Photo)

Michael Fröhlich's Jowett Javelin rotting car in his forest sculpture park in Neandertal Germany, September 11, 2016. An eccentric artist has collected fifty vintage cars and left them to rot in a forest – and now they're worth over $1 million. Former racing driver Michael Fröhlich, from Dusseldorf, Germany, has purposely crashed the cars into trees, buried them in mud and parked them on cliff faces in his estate's garden in the middle of the German Neanderthal. His collections includes a Jaguar XK120 worth $170,000, a Porsche 356 racer and a Buick worth $17,000. (Photo by Christoph Hagen/Barcroft Images)

Iranian Shiite Muslim women gather around a bonfire after rubbing mud on their body during the “Kharrah Mali” (Mud Rubbing) ritual to mark the Ashura religious ceremony in the city of Khorramabad, some 470 kms southwest of Tehran, early in the morning on October 1, 2017. “Khrreh Mali” or “Mud Rubbing” is a ritual that is held in the city of Khorramabad every year to commemorate the seventh century slaying of Prophet Mohammed' s grandson Imam Hussein, in which Iranian men roll over in mud and dry themselves by gathering around the bonfires before flagellating themselves. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP Photo)

Lush green rice terraces sprawl over 2,200 hectares of mountainside ready to be harvested. These stunning images, captured by photographer Saravut Whanset, show the incredible terraces throughout the course of the day, including at sunrise and sunset. Workers tend to the fields, with each terrace between 1 and 1.5 metres wide, while wooden huts stand on stilts on the mountainside. The beautiful panoramic pictures were taken in Mu Cang Chai, Vietnam, with the fields located at the foot of the Hoang Lien Son mountain range, 1,000 metres above sea level. (Photo by Saravut Whanset/Solent News and Photo Agency)

Kenyan photographer and art director Barbara Minishi (L) takes pictures of her room mate and fashion stylist Wambui Thimba (R) wearing a creation by a Kenyan fashion designer on the rooftop of their apartment in Nairobi, Kenya, on June 1, 2020. After their scheduled works was cancelled due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, Minishi and Thimba have started their own project called “the Kenya Fashion & Style Diary in 21 days” to showcase a Kenyan fashion brand everyday for 3 weeks on social networking services since May 22, 2020 by only shooting at their apartment. (Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP Photo)

One of the worlds shortest models Mary Russell at 4 feet 1 inch with 6 foot model Georgia Meacham in London, UK on June 16, 2016. The 4ft1 beauty suffers with achondroplasia a medical term for dwarfism, which means she has as average sized torso but short arms and short legs, with an oversized head. As well as stifled growth, Mary also suffers with sciatica and spinal stenosis, an abnormal narrowing of the spinal canal – which cause agonising nerve problems, leaving her in excruciating pain and unable to stand for long periods of time. The condition leaves Mary, 47, struggling with everyday tasks things most people take for granted like going to the supermarket, getting cash from an ATM and ordering a drink at a bar become a challenge. (Photo by Simon Jacobs/Caters News Agency)