The time of selfies with duck faces is long gone and ridiculed, though some persist in doing it. Helene Meldahl, however, didn’t want to give up the trend, but had to think of a creative way to keep doing it. So she decided to create comical pictures by drawing over the selfies that she has made. Some people just can’t stop taking pictures of themselves. It makes you wonder, what they would do in an era before the existence of cameras… Oh, poor souls, they would definitely suffer greatly without the possibility of sharing on instagram their “stunning looks” and the pictures of food that they eat every 2 seconds. (Photo by Helene Meldahl)

A machine works on a Rio 2016 Olympic medal at the Casa da Moeda do Brasil (Brazilian Mint) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 28, 2016. The Casa da Moeda do Brasil is the Brazilian mint, owned by the Brazilian government and administratively subordinated to the Ministry of Finances. It was established in 1694. (Photo by Sergio Moraes/Reuters)

The Atlantic Puffin is definitely a curious-looking bird. The special coloring that this bird develops for the breeding season in the spring is very reminiscent of tropical birds. The bright colors of the beak and the markings around the eyes serve no particular advantage and have evolved as a result of sexual selection. However, Puffins don’t look that pretty all year round. They shed all these festive colors in partial moult after the breeding season is over. They lose the ornaments around their eyes, their face becomes darker, and their beak becomes very different. The natural habitat of these birds is the cold waters of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Zookeeper Agata holds a rare newborn Brazilian three-banded armadillo inside its enclosure at the Wroclaw Zoo in Wroclaw, Poland on May 11, 2023. The Tolypeutes matatus, or the southern armor also known as bolita or tatu-bola, is a fairly popular animal in South America but is increasingly rare. The new zoo child was born on March 23. The species is listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and threatened by habitat loss and hunting. (Photo by Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A Sri Lankan elephant, accompanied by his mahout, browse through a roadside fruit stall in Colombo on January 19, 2015. The Sri Lankan elephant is listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as the population has declined by at least 50 percent over the last three generations, with the species threatened by habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation. (Photo by Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP Photo)

“Tough Times for Orangutans”. Nature, first prize stories. Tim Laman, USA. Location: West Kalimantan, Indonesia. A Bornean orangutan climbs over 30 meters up a tree in the rain forest of Gunung Palung National Park, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, August 12, 2015. The lives of wild orangutans are brought to light. Threats to these orangutans from fires, the illegal animal trade and loss of habitat due to deforestation have resulted in many orphan orangutans ending up at rehabilitation centers. (Photo by Tim Laman/World Press Photo Contest)

A herdsman stands on the back of a grey bull during a ceremony of driving sheep from their winter habitat to their summer pasture in the puszta or Hungarian steppe of Hortobagy, 183 kms east of Budapest, Hungary, 23 April 2016. Sheep are traditionally driven to their summer pasture at around St. George's Day in the Hortobagy region, because livestock breeding people traditionally consider St. George's Day the beginning of spring. (Photo by Zsolt Czegledi/EPA)

Sharon Beals is a San Francisco based photographer who has photographed nest and eggs specimens collected over the last two centuries at The California Academy of Sciences, The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, and The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. While few nests are collected today, these nests and eggs are used for research, providing important information about their builder’s habitats, DNA, diseases and other survival issues.