A Cucumber and a Chuta Cholero hug during the traditional festival “Desentierro del Pepino” (unearthing the Cucumber) to mark the beginning of carnival on January 21, 2024 in La Paz, Bolivia. People dug up the cucumber from the cemetery and walk through the streets with two characters, the Ch'uta and the Chola. (Photo by Gaston Brito/Getty Images)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)

A Shi'ite Muslim woman bleeds after she was cut on the forehead with a razor during a religious procession to mark Ashura in Nabatieh, southern Lebanon on August 19, 2021. (Photo by Aziz Taher/Reuters)

Washermen put their clothes out to dry on the banks of the River Yamuna as seen from a railway bridge near Agra, India, Saturday, December 17, 2022. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

People wearing costumes attend the annual water-splashing festival to mark the New Year of the Dai minority in Jinghong, Yunnan province, April 13, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

“After an afternoon of hiking and exploring the caves of Rhossili Bay, West Glamorgan, we caught the sun breaking through the clouds”. (Photo by Megan Warren-Davis/The Guardian)

The front wheels of a tractor, pulling a trailer overloaded with sugarcane, are seen lifted off the ground as it passes through the streets of Karor Lan Esan, Pakistan December 6, 2015. (Photo by Caren Firouz/Reuters)

Family members perform the Manene traditional rite, cleaning the relatives' preserved remains, in Lembang on August 15, 2022, which is held every three years in August and is said to bless the harvest of rice fields. (Photo by Andri Saputra/AFP Photo)