“Centuries ago, Inuit hunted the bowhead whale. At that time, whale hunting undoubtedly was part of a complex and very important ritual, if only because of the size of the catch. The position that the ancestors of today's Inuit occupied in the living world involved a relationship with the spirit that inhabited each animal but also their species”. (Photo by Robert Frechette/2014 Sony World Photography Awards)

The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its sixth year and has received over 2,500 entries. Photo: Centre of the Heart Nebula by Ivan Eder (Hungary). Situated 7500 light years away in the “W”-shaped constellation of Cassiopeia, the Heart Nebula is a vast region of glowing gas, energized by a cluster of young stars at its centre. The image depicts the central region, where dust clouds are being eroded and moulded into rugged shapes by the searing cosmic radiation. (Photo by Ivan Eder)

An aerial view taken on September 11, 2020 shows the Buddhist temple Wat Samphran (Dragon Temple) in Nakhon Pathom, some 40km west of Bangkok. Wat Samphran is a popular tourist destination with visitors coming to see the huge dragon figure curling around a pink cylindrical building next to the Buddha statues and places of worship of the traditional Buddhist temple complex. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

A woman wearing a face mask as a precaution against the COVID-19 while using smartphone in a subway train in Hong Kong, Thursday, February 27, 2020. As the worst-hit areas of Asia continued to struggle with a viral epidemic, with hundreds more cases reported Thursday in South Korea and China, worries about infection and containment spread across the globe. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

The three orangutans at Pairi Daiza zoo, Belgium, developed a “special bond” with the otters after their river was run through the ape enclosure on March 2020. The zoo said it enriched both species’ environments. An animal – and this is even more the case of orangutans, with whom humans share 97 per cent of their DNA – must be entertained, occupied, challenged and kept busy mentally, emotionally and physically at all times. (Photo by Pascale Jones/The Sun)

Visitors take pictures inside Kuala Lumpur Tower's “Sky Box”, one of the city's touristic attractions, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 05 January 2024. Malaysian Tourism Minister Tiong King Sing recently said that the tourism industry “is not just an engine for economic growth but also a bridge for cultural exchange and international friendship”. (Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA/EFE)

Spanish flamenco dancer Salome Ramirez performs in the show “Authentic Flamenco”, the show of the Teatro Real in Madrid, at the Sao Pedro theater in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 14 December 2022. After a successful tour in the United States and India, the show has arrived in the country of samba and carnivals, this time by the dancer Eduardo Guerrero and his work “Faro”. (Photo by Isaac Fontana/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)