An elephant calf yawns as mahouts paint elephants ahead of celebrations for the water festival of Songkran in Ayutthaya, Thailand on April 11, 2019. The annual elephant Songkran event is held to promote the tourism industry. Songkran Festival is held also to mark the Thai traditional New Year falling annually on 13 April, and it is celebrated with people splashing water and putting powder on each other faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the past year. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

These breath-taking photographs reveal the everyday lives of animals living in the wild. The incredible images were taken by wildlife photographer Wim van dan Heever, from Pretoria, South Africa, during trips to locations including Japan, Botswana and Svalbard. The 43-year-old has been photographing wildlife since he was a young boy and turned his passion for animals into a career and set up ODP Safaris. He has travelled across the globe to photograph wild animals – from lions and tigers, to elephants, dolphins and eagles – as they hunt, give birth and graze in their natural habitats. Here: Lions submerged in water. (Photo by Wim van den Heever/Caters News)

These men are chased by the defiant elephants on May 4, 2013. Taken by Biplab Hazra in Bishnupur, India, the images show the extreme lengths the inhabitants of the town go to to deter elephants from damaging their crops and property. Elephants encroaching out of their habitats is an increasingly common occurrence with deforestation in much of India. (Photo by Biplab Hazra/Caters News Agency)

An elephant “kisses” a visitor during a show at an elephant training school in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan province, April 18, 2015. Some 16 elephants live at the school and give four 30-minute performances everyday for visitors. (Photo by Wong Campion/Reuters)

A baby elephant struggles to climb out of a dam before being rescued by rangers at Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa in the last decade of March 2025, having been pushed into the water by another elephant. (Photo by Anne Laing/Caters News Agency)

Indonesian mahouts (elephant masters) bathe elephants prior to a daily patrol at a Conservation Respons Unite (CRU) to control elephant-human conflicts in Serbajadi, East Aceh on April 7, 2016. Elephants have joined the front line in the fight against poaching and illegal logging in the dense jungles of Sumatra. Guided by their Indonesian mahouts, they trek alongside rivers, over rough terrain and deep into the rainforest in an area that is home to numerous endangered species, from orangutans to tigers, but which has suffered devastating deforestation in recent years. (Photo by AFP Photo/Januar)

The group of elephants was tracked though nearby jungle by wildlife officers in Chachoengsao, Thailand on April, 2020. More than 50 wild elephants crossed the highway. (Photo by Pratya Chutipat Sakul/Viral Press)

A mahout rides on an elephant in the city of Amritsar, India, 08 November 2015. Such elephants are often accompanied by their caretakers who ask for alms from people in the streets. (Photo by Raminder Pal Singh/EPA)