Red-crowned cranes, dancing gracefully in the snowy fields, spread their wings and perform a “courtship dance” at the feeding area of the ”Tsurui Ito Red-crowned Crane Sanctuary” in the village of Tsurui, in Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on February 15, 2025. (Photo by JIJI Press/AFP Photo)

A blue-tailed bee-eater chases down its prey along the banks of the Kaveri River on the outskirts of the city of Mysore, India in the last decade of June 2025. (Photo by Nitin Jain/Solent News)

While many of us would pay good money for a spa mud bath, these fortunate hippos in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, have nature to thank as they take a plunge in a lagoon in the second decade of February 2024. (Photo by Dimitar Nedelchev/Solent News)

Iraqi Kurds carry fire torches as they celebrate Nowruz Day, a festival marking the first day of spring, Kurdish and Persian New Year in Akre, Iraq on March 20, 2024. Newroz or Nowruz means “new day” in Persian, and is celebrated to mark the arrival of spring and the first day of the Iranian calendar. It is widely celebrated in Persian and neighboring regions and is recognized on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Human List. (Photo by Ismael Adnan/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A shepherd and his flock in the Bitlis province of eastern Turkey in the first decade of April 2024. Shepherds regularly embark on gruelling journeys through the dusty outback, as they take their sheep to the high plateaus needed for grazing and then back to villages for milking. (Photo by Kahraman Kaya/Solent News)

A young Catholic waits for the start of mass at the church of Saint John the Baptist during the mud festival at Bibiclat, Nueva Ecija province, northern Philippines, Monday, June 24, 2024. (Photo by Aaron Favila/AP Photo)

A protester, wearing a dress in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, is detained by security after she covered herself in fake blood on the stairs on the Festival Palace ahead of the screening of the film “Acide” during the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 21, 2023. (Photo by Christophe Simon/AFP Photo)

A kite creation is flown and contested in conjunction with the 79th Independence Day of Indonesia at Mertasari beach in Sanur on Indonesia resort island of Bali on Ausgust 18, 2024. (Photo by Sonny Tumbelaka/AFP Photo)