More than 1,500 snappers submitted their most hilarious pictures of all creatures great and small, and now 45 have made the cut. From drunken-eyed owls to embarrassed chipmunks and laughing goats – the finalists in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are guaranteed to raise a smile. Here: 'Dancing sifaka'. (Photo by Alison Buttigieg/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards/Mercury Press)

Hemispheric color differences on Saturn's moon Rhea are apparent in this false-color view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft in this March 2, 2010 file photo. (Photo by Reuters/NASA/JPL/SSI)

While communism, collectivism, worms, dry rot and casual looting failed to destroy the majestic wooden churches of Russia, it may be ordinary neglect that finally does them in. Dwindled now to several hundred remaining examples, these glories of vernacular architecture lie scattered amid the vastness of the world’s largest country. Just over a decade ago, Richard Davies, a British architectural photographer, struck out on a mission to record the fragile and poetic structures. Austerely beautiful and haunting, “Wooden Churches: Traveling in the Russian North” (White Sea Publishing; $132) is the result. Covering thousands of miles, Mr. Davies described how he and the writer Matilda Moreton tracked down the survivors from among the thousands of onion-domed structures built after Prince Vladimir converted to Christianity in 988.

Sally Gomez drives to rescue of friend Michele Moore in flooded parking lot at Hyannis, Mass., September 9, 1969, after torrential rains of Hurricane Gerda flooded low areas of Cape Cod. Ann Davis of Osterville stands up in roof opening to lend a hand. Sally and Michele are from Centerville on the Cape. (Photo by Frank C. Curtin/AP Photo)

American model and actress Taylor Hill attends the gala ceremony of the 77th Venice International Film Festival in Venice, Italy, September 2, 2020. (Photo by Manuel Silvestri/Reuters)

A man walks in the street at the start of the new curfew to counter the COVID-19 in the center of Lyon, central France, Saturday, January 16, 2021. All of France will be under a stricter curfew starting Saturday at 6 p.m. for at least 15 days to fight the spread of the coronavirus. (Photo by Laurent Cipriani/AP Photo)

A woman walks past a mural on a wall along a street in Singapore on February 17, 2021. (Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP Photo)

Japanese artist Sachi shows off her creation of a realistic 3D cat portrait, made by using felted wool, at her house in Sagamihara, Japan, January 21, 2022. (Photo by Akira Tomoshige/Reuters)