Vanessa, thirty-five, had three children with an abusive husband. She “lost her mind, started doing heroin”, after losing the children, who were taken away and given to her mother. The drugs led to homelessness and prostitution. She grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, but now spends her time in Hunts Point, “trying to survive everyday. Just doing whatever it takes”.

Last Friday, in Afghanistan's mountainous northeastern province of Badakhshan, an enormous landslide took place, burying much of a small village, and killing hundreds. Officials say that at least 300 residents of Abi Barik village were killed, but are uncertain about exact numbers, cautioning that the final number could be 500 or more. Rescue teams gave up hope on Saturday of finding any survivors, focusing energy on helping the hundreds suddenly made homeless. Many of the surviving families have struggled to get aid. Some have gone to nearby villages to stay with relatives or friends, while others have slept in tents provided by aid groups.

Swans swim over a lake, with the air temperature at about minus 35 degrees Celsius (minus 31 degrees Fahrenheit) as steam ascends above the water during sunset near the village of Urozhainy, Sovetsky district of Altai region, January 26, 2015. About 600 swans annually migrate to the lake, which is heated by warm springs, where they spend their winter being fed by yagers, which helps them to survive the severe cold. (Photo by Andrei Kasprishin/Reuters)

In this October 14, 2013 photo, ecology professor Ricardo Freitas catches a broad-snouted caiman to examine, then release back into the water channel in the affluent Recreio dos Bandeirantes suburb of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Caimans are like tanks, a very old species with a remarkable capacity for renovation that allows them to survive under extreme conditions where others couldn't, said Freitas, who runs the Instituto Jacare, or the Caiman Institute, which aims to protect the reptiles. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

A scavenger sifts through garbage piled on the bank of Beirut river, Lebanon August 24, 2015. Lebanese protest organisers called for a fresh demonstration against the government on Saturday after two days of rallies that turned violent in central Beirut and wounded scores of people. The “You Stink” campaign has mobilised against the government's failure to solve a garbage disposal crisis, bringing thousands of people onto the streets in protests that have threatened the survival of the cabinet. (Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

Brazilian jaguars, imperilled by hunters, ranchers and destruction of their habitat, have learned to survive at least one menace – flooding in the Amazon. They take to the trees. Although they can be six feet long and 200 pounds, the largest South American cats nimbly navigate treetops where they stay from April to July when the rainforest floor is under meters-deep water. Here: A female adult jaguar, which has a cub, growls at the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve in Uarini, Amazonas state, Brazil, June 5, 2017. (Photo by Bruno Kelly/Reuters)

Bloodthirsty by Thomas P. Peschak, Germany/South Africa — winner, Behaviour: birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds. The finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up, so they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave their nests the boobies tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)