Pangolins in Crisis: Brent Stirton, South Africa; 1st place, Natural world and wildlife. “Pangolins are the world’s most illegally trafficked mammals, with an estimated one million trafficked to Asia in the last 10 years. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and their meat is sold as a high-priced delicacy. As a result, pangolins are listed as critically endangered and anyone who trades or consumes them is breaking the law. This body of work exposes the trade, while exploring aspects of illegality and celebrating the people who are trying to save these animals”. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Sony World Photography Awards 2020)

A man and a woman jump over a bonfire during Ivan Kupala Day celebrations held by the Belarusian State Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Lifestyle in the village of Ozertso near Minsk, Belarus on July 4, 2020. Ivan Kupala Day, also known as Ivana-Kupala or Kupala Night, is a traditional pagan holiday celebrated in eastern Slavic cultures. Various rituals are traditionally performed on Kupala Night, including making flower wreaths, fortune-telling, jumping over bonfires, and burning a wheel-like effigy symbolizing the sun. (Photo by Natalia Fedosenko/TASS)

This picture taken on June 20, 2020 shows longtail macaques chasing a woman on a scooter in the town of Lopburi, some 155km north of Bangkok. Residents barricaded indoors, rival gang fights and no-go zones for humans. Welcome to Lopburi, an ancient Thai city overrun by monkeys super-charged on junk food, whose population is growing out of control. (Photo by Mladen Antonov/AFP Photo)

English singer and songwriter Dua Lipa performs during the Brit Awards 2021 at the O2 Arena, London, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. (Photo by Ian West/PA Wire via AP Photo)

A man feeds langur monkeys during a lockdown amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic in Pushkar on April 28, 2021. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/AFP Photo)

A Soyuz rocket booster carrying the Progress MS-17 cargo freighter blasts off the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kyzylorda Region, Kazakhstan on June 30, 2021. (Photo by Roscosmos Press Office/TASS)

A confiscated pet lion poses with a dog as it arrived back home from the Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Center after Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered authorities to return the animal in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 5, 2021. (Photo by Cindy Liu/Reuters)

Volunteers care for burned sheeps in a field hospital established by HAYTAP (The Federation of the Animals Rights in Turkey) for animals after a wildfire at the Manavgat district of Antalya, Turkey, 09 August 2021. It is not known how many wild animals living in the forest died in the fires, but about 33,000 farm animals perished. About 30 veterinarians and hundreds of volunteers work around the clock at the field hospital. Sheep, covered in mosquito nets to protect their wounds from flies, lay there in the shade trying to recover, and various animals such as cats, dogs, owls, and cows have been treated or are still being treated there. (Photo by Erdem Sahin/EPA/EFE)