A Sadhu or a Hindu holy man carrying his pet monkey walks after taking a dip at the confluence of the river Ganges and the Bay of Bengal on the occasion of “Makar Sankranti” festival at Sagar Island, south of Kolkata, India, January 14, 2017. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

Beatriz Hatz, of the U.S., competes at Women's Long Jump -T64 final at the Stade de France stadium, during the 2024 Paralympics, Saturday, August 31, 2024, in Paris, France. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

A bride gets ready during a mass wedding ceremony in the old quarters of Delhi February 20, 2015. A total of 12 couples took their wedding vows on Friday during the mass wedding ceremony organised by a Hindu religious organisation, an organiser said. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

A Hindu woman gives money to an elephant outside the Lord Jagannath temple ahead of the annual Rath Yatra, or chariot procession, in Ahmedabad, India, July 16, 2015. The annual religious procession commemorates a journey by Hindu god Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, in specially made chariots. The annual Rath Yatra is celebrated on July 18. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

A woman tries to catch snowflakes with her tongue during a snowfall on Chandragiri Hills in Kathmandu, Nepal on January 23, 2019. (Photo by Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters)

Soldiers take part in a drill during a heavy snow in Heihe, Heilongjiang province, February 26, 2014. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Three-year-old orangutan from Sumatra, Berani, is pictured at the Pairi Daiza wildlife park, zoo and botanical garden in Brugelette, Belgium on August 2, 2019. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)