A worker sits as illegally harvested sandalwood confiscated by Kenya's multiagency security teams is set ablaze to curb the trade in their essential oil, which is extracted to manufacture medicines and cosmetics at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) offices along Kiambu road in Nairobi, Kenya on February 28, 2023. (Photo by Monicah Mwangi/Reuters)

A model holds a 18,18 carat pink diamond called “Fortune Pink” that could fetch 30 million U.S. dollars during a preview at Christie’s before the auction sale in Geneva, Switzerland on November 2, 2022. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

The winners of The London’s Natural History Museum's prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year for 2013 have finally been unveiled. Selected from almost 43,000 entries from 96 countries, the winners offer a glimpse of the stunning array of natural beauty on our planet. Photo: Canada: “Lucky pounce”. “Anticipating the pounce – that was the hardest part”, says Connor, who had come to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA, in search of wildlife as much as the spectacular landscape. He had found this fox, his first ever, on his last day in the park. It was so absorbed in hunting that Connor had plenty of time to get out of the car and settle behind a rock. It quartered the grassland, back and forth, and then started staring intently at a patch of ground, giving Connor just enough warning of the action to come. When it sprung up, Connor got his shot. And when it landed, the fox got his mouse. (Photo by Connor Stefanison/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013)

Soldier boys at Fort Dix, N.J., learn something about guns during their working hours, as they show their girlfriends at a camp dance, December 13, 1940. In front row, playing with the coin amusement gun, from left: Pvt. Tom D'Amato of West Orange; Rose Sinkewicz, behind gun site, of Trenton; Julia Ivans of Trenton, and Pvt. Vernon Landers of Kearney. Back row: Pvts. William Sargent and William Corlies of Philadelphia. (Photo by AP Photo)

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)

Two friends attempt to balance in the icy conditions in Newcastle, England on February 2, 2019. Boozy Brits across the UK took to the streets last night to ensure they got February off to a wet start after “Dry January”. (Photo by Craig Connor/North News and Pictures)

A pedestrian carries an umbrella as they stroll past an advertisment as a rainstorm moves through Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday, February 13, 2019. Rain is falling widely in Northern California and is expected to spread south. (Photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo)

A female rebel in Kabul, Afghanistan, circa 1979. Photo taken at a parade in Kabul in honor of the pro-Communist Saur Revolution. She was from the women’s battalion of the people’s militia (one of the anti-imperial groups that participated in the coup d’etat). (Photo by Viktor Khabarov)