High school seniors clad in traditional attire bow during a joint graduation and coming-of-age ceremony at Dongmyung Girls' High School in Seoul South Korea, Tuesday, February 7, 2023. (Photo by Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo)

People gather outside Red Square and the Kremlin for the New Year celebrations in downtown Moscow late on December 31, 2023. (Photo by Tatyana Makeyeva/AFP Photo)

When Colin Garratt went to photograph the traditional sentinels of the British countryside, he found they ranged from the dapper to the downright sinister. “They are not from the anaesthetised world of the craft fair”, says Colin Garratt, “but are the direct descendants of the ancient spectres which have haunted the landscape for centuries”. The Scarecrow Exhibition is at Geddes Gallery, London, from 25 to 30 March. (Photo by Colin Garratt)

Young couple in BDSM action on the leather sofa. (Photo by Alamy Stock Photo)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)

Carnival revelers perform during the Academicos do Baixo Augustaa carnival “bloco” parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, February 24, 2019. (Photo by Andre Penner/AP Photo)

Two white storks stand close to each other on their nest on a tree in Zerbolo, Italy, Thursday, October 26, 2017. (Photo by Antonio Calanni/AP Photo)

A macaque crosses a pedestrian overpass in Hong Kong, China, 08 November 2021. According the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, AFCD, the total population of wild monkeys in Hong Kong is about 1,800, distributed in 30 social troops. (Photo by Jerome Favre/EPA/EFE)