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)

A small section of the expanding remains of the Veil Nebula, a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago. The entire nebula is 110 light-years across, covering six full moons on the sky as seen from Earth, and resides about 2,100 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. (Photo by Reuters/NASA/ESA/Hubble)

Behaviour: Mammals category. Giant Gathering by Tony Wu, USA. Dozens of sperm whales mingled noisily off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast, stacked as far down as Tony could see. This was a congregation of dozens of social units, like a gathering of the clans. Aggregations like this could be a critical part of the whales’ rich social lives but are rarely reported. Some two thirds of the population was wiped out before commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This kind of major gathering could be “a sign that populations are recovering”, says Tony. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017)

Brian Skerry can be called many things – explorer, journalist, conservation advocate – but he is first and foremost a photographer. His journeys to capture amazing underwater photographs have taken him across the world’s oceans. Photo: This Bahamian oceanic whitetip shark, known for the distinctive coloring on its white-tipped, rounded extremities, is part of a globally threatened species due to overfishing demands, primarily for its fins. (Photo by Brian Skerry)

Sea lions make dinner plans in the Gulf of California early July 2024. The gulf is a primary source of sardines and anchovies, two of Mexico’s top marine resources. (Photo by Glenn Ostle/Solent News)

An aerial view shows a fishing boat which capsized due to weather conditions by the coast in Banda Aceh, Indonesia on June 23, 2025. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

A young girl is splashed as she takes an elephant bath at Rapti river in Chitwan, Nepal, 30 October 2021. Chitwan is one of the major tourist destinations in Nepal and popular zone for wild life sightseeing in Chitwan National Park. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA/EFE)

In this photo released by the Newton Fire department, a juvenile raccoon looks out from a grate after getting stuck in Newton, Massachusetts on August 1, 2019. The fire department was able to rescue the raccoon and free him from the grate. (Photo by HO/Newton Fire Department/AFP Photo)