At the end of rice harvesting season, the folks of the Kagawa and Niigata Prefectures in Japan hold a straw festival to celebrate the abundance of the harvest. Dried straws cover wooden frames to form larger-than-life sculptures from animals like sharks and gorillas to vessels such as ships and tanks. The family-friendly event invites visitors of all ages to engage, interact, and play on the enormous structures.

About a dozen dogs traded in their leashes for life vests Saturday for the chance to ride the waves at Jupiter beach as part of a canine surfing competition to raise money for an animal rescue group. Photo: Musso paddles in with Jengo. (Photo by Taylor Jones/The Palm Beach Post)

These poignant portraits look to shine awareness on the plight of some of the world’s most endangered ecosystems and species of wildlife. The images combine animals, art and celebrity, with Asia's top models posing with the likes of rhinos, giraffes, leopards and marine life. Here: Mikki Yao with an Asian Elephant. (Photo by Sean Lee-Davies/Caters News)

Children displaced as a result of Boko Haram attacks in the northeast region of Nigeria, run at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Yola, Adamawa State January 13, 2015. Boko Haram says it is building an Islamic state that will revive the glory days of northern Nigeria's medieval Muslim empires, but for those in its territory life is a litany of killings, kidnappings, hunger and economic collapse. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

Members of the Legio X Fretensis (Malta) re-enactment group take part in a display of ancient Roman army life at Fort Rinella in Kalkara, outside Valletta, March 22, 2015. The event “Romanus”, organised by the Malta Heritage Trust, consisted of talks, hands-on displays, static exhibitions of weapons and equipment, food and wine tasting and large-scale re-enactments depicting different forms of Roman warfare in the field. (Photo by Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters)

Newly-wed Syrian couple Nada Merhi, 18, and Hassan Youssef, 27, have their wedding pictures taken in front of a heavily damaged building in the war ravaged city of Homs on February 5, 2016. A Syrian photographer thought of using the destruction of Homs to take pictures of newly wed couples to show that life is stronger than death. (Photo by Joseph Eid/AFP Photo)