Commended. In late May, about a quarter of a million snow geese arrive from North America to nest on Wrangel Island, in northeastern Russia. They form the world's largest breeding colony of snow geese. Photographer Sergey Gorshkov spent two months on the remote island photographing the unfolding dramas. Arctic foxes take advantage of the abundance of eggs, caching surplus eggs for leaner times. But a goose (here the gander) is easily a match for a fox, which must rely on speed and guile to steal eggs. “The battles were fairly equal”, notes Sergey, “and I only saw a fox succeed in grabbing an egg on a couple of occasions, despite many attempts”. Surprisingly, “the geese lacked any sense of community spirit”, he adds, “and never reacted when a fox harassed a neighboring pair nesting close by”. (Photo by Sergey Gorshkov/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer)

An adult helps a young girl light a cigarette as a band plays in the background in the village of Vale de Salgueiro, northern Portugal, during the local Kings' Feast Friday, January 5, 2018. The village's Epiphany celebrations, called Kings' Feast, feature a tradition that each year causes an outcry among outsiders: parents encourage their children, some as young as 5, to smoke cigarettes. (Photo by Armando Franca/AP Photo)

A long-tailed monkey, wearing jeans and a doll's head perform on the streets of Boyolali, Central Java Indonesia. Primates are used by owners to beg at crossroads, the primate show can earn $ 5 per day. Begging using long-tailed monkeys is opposed by animal lovers community as it is considered to torture and degrade animal health. (Photo by Arief Setiadi/Pacific Press/Barcroft Images)

An aerial view shows a Russian Troika, a sledge drawn by three horses, competing on the ice-covered Yenisei River during the annual Ice Derby amateur horse race near the Siberian settlement of Novosyolovo, south of Krasnoyarsk, Russia March 17, 2018. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

Aerial view of contestants attending the opening ceremony of a dragon boat race on the Rongjiang River at Rong'an County on October 10, 2020 in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. (Photo by Tan Kaixing/VCG via Getty Images)

The 139-year-old Victorian house known as the Englander House is hoisted on a flat bed and pulled down Franklin Street towards its new location six blocks away, as the original site is to be used to build a 48-unit, eight-story apartment building, in San Francisco, California, U.S. February 21, 2021. (Photo by Brittany Hosea-Small/Reuters)

A surfer takes some air off a wave while surfing after sunset in Cardiff, California, U.S., January 7, 2020. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

Lola Aylmer, 25, stands inside the artist Gemma Anderson-Tempini's infinite laundry mirrored room, which is part of a transformed Victorian house, in Leeds, UK early November 2023. (Photo by South West News Service)