Snow falls as a woman walks her dog in the village of Podolye, 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of St. Petersburg, Russia, early Thursday, May 11, 2017. North winds brought snow to the east of the St. Petersburg region. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Senior Buddhist monk Lobsang Tayang sits outside the Amarbayasgalant Monastery in the Baruunburen district, Selenge province, Mongolia, April 26, 2018. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

“The Ainu (アイヌ?), also called Aynu, Aino (アイノ), and in historical texts Ezo (蝦夷), are indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. Historically they spoke the Ainu language and related varieties and lived in Hokkaidō, the Kuril Islands, and much of Sakhalin. Most of those who identify themselves as Ainu still live in this same region, though the exact number of living Ainu is unknown. This is due to ethnic issues in Japan resulting in those with Ainu backgrounds hiding their identities and confusion over mixed heritages. In Japan, because of intermarriage over many years with Japanese, the concept of a 'pure Ainu' ethnic group is no longer feasible. Official estimates of the population are of around 25,000, while the unofficial number is upwards of 200,000 people”. – Wkipedia

Photo: A captive bear drinking from a large bottle held by an Ainu tribeswoman. (Photo by Evans/Three Lions/Getty Images). Circa 1955

People cross Flagstaff Hill as the snow starts to fall, in Schenley Park, on their way to the Carnegie Mellon University campus, Tuesday, March 20, 2018, in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Yet another powerful storm bore down on the Northeast on Tuesday, with wind-whipped snow falling in parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey as people grumbled and complained about a first day of spring that looked an awful lot like the last weeks of winter. (Photo by Darrell Sapp/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP Photo)

A view of the platform of the Leviathan natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea is pictured from the Israeli northern coastal beach of Nasholim, on August 29, 2022. (Photo by Jack Guez/AFP Photo)

Photo taken at the top of the Canton Tower, a landmark in Guangzhou, on August 7, 2022 shows the Pearl River running through downtown of Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong Province. (Photo by Liu Dawei/Xinhua News Agency)

The shortlist for the coveted Bird Photographer of the Year awards has been announced by Nature Photographers and the British Trust for Ornithology. Here: Red-billed oxpecker on an impala, Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by Edmund Aylmer/BPOTY/Cover Images/The Guardian)

A pigeon stretches its wings in the Ka Faroshi bird market in Kabul on July 16, 2022. (Photo by Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP Photo)