Galapagos – Rocking the Cradle: Four major ocean currents converge along the Galapagos archipelago, creating the conditions for an extraordinary diversity of animal life, April 25, 2016. The islands are home to at least 7,000 flora and fauna species, of which 97 percent of the reptiles, 80 percent of the land birds, 50 percent of the insects and 30 percent of the plants are endemic. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak for National Geographic/World Press Photo)

Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 36, who was an illegal logger turned forest protector poses at Phong Nha National Park, Quang Binh province, Vietnam on April 8, 2022. (Photo by Hoang Trung/Reuters)

Models present creations by Portuguese fashion designer Ines Torcato during the Portugal Fashion show in Porto, Portugal, 14 October 2021. Spring/Summer 2022 collections are presented at the 49th Portugal Fashion until 16 October 2021. (Photo by Jose Coelho/EPA/EFE)

In Mumbai, the windows of new high-rise apartment blocks, old low-rise residential buildings and shantytown shacks portray the disparity in living conditions and incomes in the Indian city. Rents for a place to live range from more than $2,000 to less than $5 a month. Here: Windows and doors of an old residential building are pictured in central Mumbai October 10, 2014. The cost for buying a residential apartment in Mumbai close to the city centre ranges from 12,000 Indian rupees ($ 200) per square feet to 112,552 Indian rupees ($ 1800) per square feet. (Photo by Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)

“Exactly one year before the long awaited Sochi Olympics, Vladimir Putin went to Sochi personally to see how the construction is going. After receiving a report saying the ski jumps that were supposed to be ready in 2011, are not completed still, while their price has sky-rocketed from 1.2 billion to 8 billion roubles, he commented, “Good for you. Good job”, and then fired the vice president of the Olympic committee. Russian artist Vasily Slonov painted his view of the upcoming games, giving a new interpretation to the adored Russian mascot Cheburashka, and combining officially endorsed stereotypes of Russia with grimmer and less accepted ones”. – Ruskie.info. (Photo by Vasily Slonov)

“Serengeti National Park encompasses 5,700 square miles of grassy plains and woodlands near the northern border of Tanzania, and is home to more than 3,500 lions grouped into a couple dozen prides. Photographer Nick Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson made several extended trips to the Serengeti between July 2011 and January 2013, determined to break new visual ground in their coverage of the Serengeti Lions”. Photo: Cubs of the Simba East pride: too young to kill but old enough to crave meat. Adult females, and sometimes males, do the hunting. Zebras and wildebeests rank high as chosen prey in the rainy season. (Photo by Michael Nichols/National Geographic via The Atlantic)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)