Michael Olivant, a Times reader, saw a chance to contribute when a Dalmatian pelican landed on his wife’s head at Lake Kerkini in northern Greece in the first decade of February 2025. (Photo by Michael Olivant/The Times)

A smiling gecko bursts through a gap in the bark to surprise photographer in West Java, Indonesia in the last decade of March 2025. (Photo by Dzul Duzulfikri/Animal News Agency)

Marina performs on stage at O2 Apollo Manchester on May 10, 2019 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Andrew Benge/Redferns)

Triplet sisters Natalia, Irina and Tatiana Mironenko attend a rehearsal while preparing for examination performances staged by the graduates of the folk dance faculty of the Krasnoyarsk choreographic college in Krasnoyarsk, Russia May 13, 2019. All three 19-year-old sisters are expected to join the renowned Krasnoyarsk state academic dance ensemble of Siberia after the graduation. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A woman crosses a road outside the EU Parliament ahead of the EU elections in Brussels, Belgium, May 22, 2019. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

In this August 24, 2019 photo, a tractor pulls a trailer that was converted into a swimming pool as it drives along the roads of El Infernal neighborhood in San Andres in the province of Pinar del Río, Cuba. The idea for the mobile tractor-pool was hatched by local parents, to make their kids happy and fight the harsh Caribbean heat. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

Farmers harvest lotus loots in a pond on July 21, 2025 in Nantong, Jiangsu Province of China. Lotus root harvest season is in full swing in Nantong as farmers work to harvest and transport fresh lotus roots to meet market demand. (Photo by Zhai Huiyong/VCG via Getty Images)

This aerial photograph shows beach-goers gathering on a beach alongside the Atlantic Ocean in Carcans, south-western France on July 22, 2025. (Photo by Christophe Archambault/AFP Photo)