In more “raccoons are getting more like us” news, a drunk raccoon was found in a liquor store in Virginia, US in the first decade of December 2025. The animal had got into the shop via some loose ceiling tiles, knocked bottles of spirits off the shelves, lapped up the contents and passed out in the toilets. Once it had sobered up, it was released back into the wild – no doubt with a crashing hangover. (Photo by AP Photo)

A general view of dried-up rivers in the Pilbara region of Western Australia December 2, 2013. Western Australia's Pilbara region, which is the size of Spain, has the world's largest known deposits of iron ore and supplies nearly 45 percent of global trade in the mineral. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

A baby rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) looks up as it plays with a tiger cub at a zoo in Hefei, Anhui province, August 2, 2012. (Photo by Jianan Yu/Reuters)

Children play on top of an abandoned car at the “Aguerridos Liberator” shanty town in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, May 9, 2019. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Lydia Hassebroek, 10, uses a magnifying glass to light a leaf on fire in her backyard during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., May 17, 2020. (Photo by Caitlin Ochs/Reuters)

Vatican Swiss Guards stand attention at the St. Damaso courtyard on the occasion of the swearing-in ceremony at the Vatican, Sunday, October 4, 2020. The ceremony is held to commemorate the day in 1527 when 147 Swiss Guards died protecting Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome. (Photo by Gregorio Borgia/AP Photo)

A Chinese woman wears a mask to protect from particles blown in during a sandstorm as she walks in the street on May 4, 2017 in Beijing, China. Sandstorms are common in northern China during the spring season and are caused when heavy winds from Mongolia in the north brings sand and pollutants that can blanket Chinese cities and cause air quality to deteriorate. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A car is submerged in flood water at an apartment complex in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Thursday, October 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (Photo by Mike Stewart/AP Photo)