Entitled Feasting at Sunset, this photo of a Brandt’s cormorant among pilchards was the winner of the Birds in the Environment category in the 2025 Bird Photographer of the Year competition. (Photo by Franco Banfi/The Guardian)

Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

Volunteers of a Wild Nature Preservation center release a group of owl chicks from the Toro Mountain in Menorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, 31 July 2019. (Photo by David Arquimbau Sintes/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Sea lions make dinner plans in the Gulf of California early July 2024. The gulf is a primary source of sardines and anchovies, two of Mexico’s top marine resources. (Photo by Glenn Ostle/Solent News)

“Meet the woman dispelling the myths about one of the worlds most feared ocean predators by swimming without protection with great white sharks. Petite beauty Ocean Ramsey travels the globe swimming with many species of sharks hoping to prove they are nothing like their Jaws film reputation”. – Caters News. Photo: Ocean Ramsey freediving with a shark. (Photo by Juan Oliphant/Caters News)

Lowry Park Zoo elephants Matjeka, 23, and her 1-year-old daughter, Mavi, apply a liberal coating of “sunscreen” to themselves in a clay mud wallow at the park Tuesday, August 12, 2014, in Tampa, Fla., on the park's first observation of World Elephant Day to raise awareness of the wild African elephant crisis. “Elephants are prone to being sunburned”, said associate curator Chris Massaro. “What they need is lot of mud or clay to roll around in and cover up their skin so it will protect it from the sun”. (Photo by Cherie Diez/AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times)

Actress Nicolle Rochelle, who appeared on several episodes of “The Cosby Show”, is detained as Bill Cosby arrives for his sexual assault trial at the Montgomery County Courthouse, Monday, April 9, 2018, in Norristown, Pa. Rochelle of Little Falls, N.J., was charged with disorderly conduct. (Photo by Corey Perrine/AP Photo)

It looks like a kiss but this male and female blackbird were fighting in flight in Charlton Adam, Somerset, South West England in July 2022. (Photo by Ben Pulletz/Solent News)