Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

Leon Samson, 24-year-old showman, grimaces as an automobile is driven across his chest at Perth, Australia on October 9, 1960. Samson said the towel on his chest is to prevent the wheel from tearing his flesh. (Photo by AP Photo)

A robin perches on a spade handle in a garden on a rainy day in Lixwm, north Wales. Researchers said this week that when European robins are subjected to human-produced noise, their behaviour changes. (Photo by DGDImages/Alamy Live News)

A newly hatched chick cuddles up to its mother at Santee Lakes near San Diego, California in May 2023. (Photo by Tammy Kokjohn/Solent News)

A participant wearing his cosplay featuring a character from an animation gets his government contact tracing QR code in the “LeaveHomeSafe” COVID-19 mobile app scanned at Ani-Com and Games exhibition in Hong Kong, Friday, July 29, 2022. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)

Maya Goldstein, 7 marches in the Capital Pride Parade in Washington, D.C. on June 10, 2023. (Photo by Amanda Andrade-Rhoades for The Washington Post)

Peruvian surfer Domingo Pianezzi rides a wave with his alpaca Pisco at San Bartolo beach in Lima March 16, 2010. Pianezzi has spent a decade training dogs to ride the nose of his board when he catches waves, and now he is the first to do so with an alpaca. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

British puffin mid-flight with a beak full of small fish, their favourite foods being sand eels, herring and hake in Farne Islands, United Kingdom in June 2022. These pint-sized creatures are just 12 inches in height and have a wingspan of 25 inches. (Photo by Mathijs van Lisdonk/Media Drum Images)