Breath of an Arctic fox by Marco Gaiotti, Italy. Marco was watching this little Arctic fox as it incessantly called another nearby. Gradually he noticed the fox’s wet breath was quickly freezing in the air after each call. It was late winter in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, and the air was -35C (-31F). Photographing Arctic foxes is often frustrating, as they are normally running around fast in search of food, but this one was very relaxed and let Marco get close enough to focus on it, with the light glowing perfectly in the background. (Photo by Marco Gaiotti/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021)

A member of the “Castellers Minyons de Terrassa” adjusts her belt before forming a human tower or ÒcastellÓ during the festival of the patron saint of Barcelona “The Virgin of Mercy” at Sant Jaume square in Barcelona, Spain, September 20, 2015. The formation of human towers is a tradition in Catalonia dating back to the 18th century. (Photo by Susana Vera/Reuters)

A pro-Russian rebel guards a captured former Ukrainian Army checkpoint outside Vuhlehirsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, February 5, 2015. The rebels have closed in around the town in a strategy they triumphantly refer to as the Debaltseve cauldron. Separatists recently burst through government lines in the rural settlement of Vuhlehirsk. (Photo by Vadim Braydov/AP Photo)

A member of the Fuerza Civil (Civil Force) police unit takes part in a simulated crime situation during a media presentation to show the police model that the federal government wants for the rest of the country, at the police academy in Monterrey December 17, 2014. Fuerza Civil, a tactical team of the police unit trained by the army, was created by the Nuevo Leon government in 2011 to curb down corruption and infiltration by drug gangs in the police corps, local media reported. Promising a new law to stop the infiltration of local governments by organized crime, President Enrique Pena Nieto pledged to reform the penal system and send an proposal to Congress to unify multi-layered police forces in Mexico's 31 states. (Photo by Daniel Becerril/Reuters)

This image is NGC 6543 known as the Cat's Eye Nebula as it appears to the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and Hubble Telescope. A planetary nebula is a phase of stellar evolution that the sun should experience several billion years from now, when it expands to become a red giant and then sheds most of its outer layers, leaving behind a hot core that contracts to form a dense white dwarf star. This image was released October 10, 2012. (Photo by J. Kastner/NASA/CXC/RIT)

Tim Laman is a field biologist and wildlife photojournalist. His pioneering research in the rain forest canopy in Borneo led to a PhD from Harvard and his first National Geographic article in 1997. Since then, he has pursued his passion for exploring wild places and documenting little-known and endangered wildlife by becoming a regular contributor to National Geographic. He has eighteen articles to his credit to date, all of which have had a conservation message. Some have focused on endangered species such as Orangutans or Hornbills, while others, such as a series of articles on Conservation International’s Biodiversity Hotspots, have highlighted regions under intense pressure.

A Panasonic Toughpad is displayed during a press event at The Venetian for the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) January 9, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 10-13 and is expected to feature 2,700 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to about 140,000 attendees. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)