A cat sits on the empty Great Wall on February 23, 2021 in Beijing, China. Affected by the new coronavirus (COVID-19), the number of visitors to Mutianyu Great Wall in 2020 dropped by about 60%. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

Participants during the Whitby Krampus Run street parade in Whitby, Yorkshire on Saturday, December 3, 2022, which celebrates the Krampus, a horned creature which accompanies Saint Nicholas on his rounds. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images/Profimedia)

A nurse holds a painting of Prime Minister Boris Johnson clapping with blood on his hands as part of a demonstration of NHS workers at hospitals across London to demand a 15 per cent pay rise by the government in London, Wednesday, August 26, 2020.(Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

A month-old Tengmalm’s owl chick blends in with soft toys on August 8, 2024 at the Scottish Owl Centre in Whitburn, West Lothian. The chick is being raised by Trystan Williams, the centre’s head keeper, after losing its father and being abandoned by its mother. (Photo by Katielee Arrowsmith/South West News Service)

Senate pages wear eclipse glasses as they view the moon partially covering the sun during a total solar eclipse, in front of the U.S. Senate on Capitol Hill, Monday, April 8, 2024, in Washington. (Photo by Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Combat between two male stag beetles, Italy, 2022. During the mating season, male stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) go into a frenzy, with lively but harmless clashes, in which bigger males often have the advantage over smaller ones due to their impressive mandibles. Longer larval development and genetic traits can increase the size of some individuals, but all saproxylic beetles are threatened by poor forest management, logging and dead wood removal to “clean” the forest. (Photo by Iacopo Nerozzi)

A walker has left a handprint on a snow- covered tree trunk on Grosser Feldberg mountain in the Taunus mountain range, Germany, 16 January 2017. (Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst/DPA)

With its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R. Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” – for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below. Mark R. Smith’s entry combines several images of a Hawaiian bobtail squid with different focus lengths to create a final picture with greater depth of field than normal. (Photo by Mark R. Smith/Wellcome Images/Macroscopic Solutions)