Honorable Mention: “The Storm”. During I was taking photo with my nephew, the storm came and I caught this beautiful moment. Photo location: Kocaeli, Turkey. (Photo and caption by Aytül Akbaş/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A crow attacks a passerby, in a series of crow attacks on residents at a neighbourhood in Singapore on February 14, 2023. (Photo by Leonard Phuah/Shin Min Daily/Singapore Press Holding Media Trust via Reuters)

Adrian Reyes, representing Canada, prepares backstage before competing in the Miss International Queen pageant on June 24, 2023 in Pattaya, Thailand. Thailand hosts Miss International Queen, the largest and most prestigious international transgender beauty pageant. The pageant, held annually in Pattaya, Thailand is held takes place during Pride month. Throughout Thailand, Thai LGBTQ activists have held Pride events calling for equality and pressuring the incoming government to move forward with legislation that would allow marriage for all. (Photo by Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images)

A month-old Tengmalm’s owl chick blends in with soft toys on August 8, 2024 at the Scottish Owl Centre in Whitburn, West Lothian. The chick is being raised by Trystan Williams, the centre’s head keeper, after losing its father and being abandoned by its mother. (Photo by Katielee Arrowsmith/South West News Service)

In this photograph taken on April 1, 2015, an Indonesian resident and child walk away from an abandoned school building as Mount Sinabung erupts in Karo district on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. According to authorities about 3,500 people were displaced after the February 2014 eruption of Mount Sinabung volcano and many are still living in evacuation centers as the volcano remains active. (Photo by Sutanta Aditya/AFP Photo)

With a presence in nearly every city and town across Iran, the paramilitary Basij volunteer corps has an ever-increasing influence on life in the Islamic Republic. Authorities created the Basij, which means mobilization in Persian, just after the country's 1979 Islamic Republic. It is part of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard. Photo: In this Thursday, August 22, 2013 photo, a female member of the Basij paramilitary militia aims a rifle as a trainer looks over her shoulder in Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo)

An alpaca chewing a leaf is pictured on November 18, 2014 in the zoo of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Photo by Frank Rumpenhorst/AFP Photo/DPA)

A fox stands along a street in the Central London, Wednesday, March. 1, 2023. (Photo by Kin Cheung/AP Photo)