“Attacking Howler Monkey”. Due to a major tropical rainstorm my wife and I were forced to stay overnight in a Howler Monkey Rescue center in Panama. I used the time to explore the area and to take photos of the monkeys. Just after the rain finally stopped, I ran into this monkey that tried to mock attack me. I quickly took a couple of photos before retreating to a (more) safe distance. (Photo and caption by Christian Mueller-Planitz/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

With its huge eyes, comical name and diminutive size, Mark R. Smith’s image of a baby Hawaiian bobtail squid can’t help but raise a smile. A curiously endearing creature, the cephalopod is just 1.5cm across, its mantle cavity bearing more than a passing resemblance to a rather natty shower cap. But it is also a beautiful example of symbiosis – nature’s version of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” – for on the underside of the squid is a light organ which houses bioluminescent bacteria. The squid offers the bacteria protection and food, while the bacteria emit a glow – a handy trait that the squid uses to offset its silhouette, helping it to evade predators in the depths below. Mark R. Smith’s entry combines several images of a Hawaiian bobtail squid with different focus lengths to create a final picture with greater depth of field than normal. (Photo by Mark R. Smith/Wellcome Images/Macroscopic Solutions)

A member of Four Paws International team carries a pelican to be taken out of Gaza, at a zoo in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip August 23, 2016. Fifteen animals including a bengal tiger were removed from “the world’s worst zoo” in the Gaza town of Khan Younis as it was finally closed down. Animal welfare group, Four Paws International, will help bring most of the refugees to a zoo in Jordan, but the tiger will be taken to a refuge in South Africa. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

A fuel rod is inserted into a reactor vessel inside the No. 1 reactor building at Kyushu Electric Power's Sendai nuclear power station in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima prefecture, Japan, July 8, 2015. Kyushu Electric Power Co started loading uranium fuel rods into a reactor on Tuesday, marking the first attempt to reboot Japan's nuclear industry in nearly two years after the sector was shutdown following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

An approximately 8 year-old male orangutan named Siamang reacts under the influence of tranquilizer as it's being prepared to be released into the wild at a rehabilitation center in Kuta Mbelin, North Sumatra, Indonesia, Friday, July 10, 2015. The orangutans at the center were mostly rescued from palm oil plantations or confiscated from homes where they were kept as pet animals. Orangutan populations in Indonesia's Borneo and Sumatra island are facing severe threats from habitat loss, illegal logging, fires and poaching. Conservationists predicted that without immediate action, orangutans are likely to be the first great ape to become extinct in the wild. (Photo by Binsar Bakkara/AP Photo)

A Ukrainian woman carrying groceries walks on August 8, 2022 past a cordoned location where a man died in a Russian cluster-bomb attack Monday morning local time in Kharkiv outside a residential area, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moscow continues to bear down on Ukraine with ferocity, especially in Donetsk and Luhansk. (Photo by Daniel Ceng Shou-Yi/ZUMA Press Wire/Alamy Live News)

Local resident Rita holds a cat while her neighbour Raisa saws firewood next to their residential building heavily damaged by permanent Russian military strikes in the front line town of Avdiivka, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine on November 8, 2023. (Photo by Serhii Nuzhnenko/Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty via Reuters)

A worker is immersed in a kaleidoscope of colour while they paint traditional umbrellas in Juwiring, Klaten, Central Java, Indonesia in December 2023. The workers who spend around 8 hours a day, depending on order quantities and customer deadlines are paid around Ј200 a month. They will paint a batch over the period of two to three days until each layer of paint is dry. Extras of the traditional umbrella will be made as many tourists come to buy them. (Photo by Lia Indriani/Solent News & Photo Agency)