“Lobsang and 66 fellow monks were imprisoned in 1959. When released 21 years later, he was one of only three survivors. While in prison his best friend, a rinpoche, died in his arms. Tensin was later discovered to be the reincarnation of that friend. Lobsang said there are so many characteristics of his old friend in the young boy”. (Photo and caption by Phil Borges)

A) 1st place WINNER – Roy Rimmer. “This rat was in an outdoor set I made, the set up is two meters long and a meter wide made of Perspex,it has a plywood front with holes cut in for my camera and flash guns, I placed two rusty paint cans in the set up and the rat would leap from one can too the other, I had to use flash to freeze the action”.

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)

Jack Frost, an ultra rare albino Hedgehog, that has been rescued by Prickly Pigs Hedgehog Rescue in Otley, West Yorkshire on August 23, 2020. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images)

Ocean Rebellion activists dressed as Merpeople protest against bottom trawling during a demonstration ahead of the COP26 summit, in Glasgow, Scotland Britain, October 30, 2021. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

Children hold Taliban flags during a celebration marking the first anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in front of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, August 31, 2022. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

Kazakh girls watch as the Russian Soyuz TMA-15 rocket carrying Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Frank De Winne of Belgium and Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko readies for take-off from the Baikonur cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan on May 27, 2009. Three astronauts, from Canada, Belgium and Russia, blasted off for the International Space Station in a landmark mission that will double its crew to six for the first time. (Photo by Dmitry Kostyukov/AFP Photo)

Two scavengers collect plastics in the Citarum river in Bandung, West Java on March 28, 2023. (Photo by Timur Matahari/AFP Photo)