A frog appears to have a big smile for the camera, Russia. Things are heating up at the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards as the shortlisted final 40 entries are revealed. This year's competition has featured over 2200 hilarious entries from around the world with photos including a fox face planting in the snow, a dancing brown bear and a pair of seemingly headless penguins – all beautifully photographed with perfect comedy timing and a strong conservation message. (Photo by Artyom Krivosheev/Barcroft Images/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2016)

28 year old Rupa has her hair shaven to donate to the Gods at the Thiruthani Murugan Temple November 10, 2016 in Thiruttani, India. Rupa donated her hair with the wish that her daughter's illness is cured. The process of shaving ones hair and donating it to the Gods is known as tonsuring. It is common for Hindu believers to tonsure their hair at a temple as a young child, and also to celebrate a wish coming true, such as the birth of a baby or the curing of an illness. The “temple hair”, as it's known, is then auctioned off to a processing plant and then sold as pricey wigs and weaves in the US, Europe and Africa. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Medical staff celebrate after all patients were discharged at a temporary hospital set up to treat people with the COVID-19 coronavirus in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on March 9, 2020. China closed most of its makeshift hospitals for coronavirus patients, some schools reopened and Disney resort staff went back to work on March 9 as normality slowly returns to the country after weeks battling the epidemic. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

Yana Shcherban of Russia looks at the ball after failing to receive it during their FIVB Women's Volleyball World Grand Prix 2014 final round against Japan in Tokyo August 20, 2014. (Photo by Yuya Shino/Reuters)

Sumo wrestlers in their women's match at the 2021 Russian Sumo Championship at Ak Bars Wrestling Palace in Kazan, Russia on February 14, 2021. There are over 6,000 sumo wrestlers in Russia. (Photo by Yegor Aleyev/TASS)

A Chinese tourist uses the scarf of a friend as she is helped while she and others struggle to climb in the wind on an icy section of the Great Wall at Badaling, on a cold day after a snowfall on November 30, 2019 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Malaysian firemen make their way to a designated area to spray disinfectant, in an effort to combat coronavirus and COVID-19, at the entrance to a school in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 14 April 2020. According to media reports, Malaysia has confirmed over 4,000 cases of coronavirus and COVID-19. (Photo by Ahmad Yusni/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)