Sea lion “Jay” paints a Chinese character reading “the Serpent” at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on January 3, 2013. The event, marking the forthcoming Chinese lunar calender year of the snake was held as part of a New Year's attraction. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP Photo)

A) 1st place WINNER – Roy Rimmer. “This rat was in an outdoor set I made, the set up is two meters long and a meter wide made of Perspex,it has a plywood front with holes cut in for my camera and flash guns, I placed two rusty paint cans in the set up and the rat would leap from one can too the other, I had to use flash to freeze the action”.

Travel photographer Amos Chapple recently crossed into Turkmenistan on a three-day transit visa and was able to photograph many of the sights and monuments in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city. Turkmenistan is a single-party country, a former Soviet state, run by a president at the center of a cult of personality.

Photo: A young couple leave the Alem Entertainment Center in Ashgabat. The current president has a history of breaking obscure records. In 2012 the wheel atop this complex was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest enclosed Ferris wheel. The structure was built at a cost of $90m. (Photo by Amos Chapple via The Atlantic)

Against the scorching sun, a hungry jackal chases a flock of birds looking for a quick morning snack. Taken in South Africa's Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, these images capture the moment a lone hunter tries, and then succeeds, in his pursuit. (Photo by John Mullineux/Solent News)

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)

A performer takes part in the annual street parade, which is part of the Carnival of Cultures celebrating the multi-ethnic diversity of the city, in Berlin, Germany on May 20, 2018. (Photo by Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters)

People dressed as a dancing devils with giant mask dance on a street, during a traditional celebration in Naiguata, Venezuela, Thursday, May 31, 2018. Carrying in their hands striking masks mostly animals and sea monsters, hundreds of men, women and children went out to dance frantically as possessed by evil spirits in an ancient ritual known as Dancing Devils of Naiguata, the unorthodox way of the coastal towns of Venezuela to venerate God during the celebrations of Corpus Christi. (Photo by Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

A butterfly flies into the jaws of a crocodile inhabiting the Tarcoles River, the most polluted basin in Central America and one of the most polluted in Latin America, in the place of Tarcoles, province of Puntarenas, Costa Rica, 05 June 2018. Costa Rica, a country recognized worldwide for its environmental policies, seeks to be a leader in the replacement of single-use plastic with renewable and compostable alternatives, despite its lag in terms of recycling and integrated waste management. (Photo by Jeffrey Arguedas/EPA/EFE)