Among the fish populations that could be harmed by the Xayaburi dam in Laos is the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest freshwater fish. The fish, which grows to 650 pounds and about 10 feet long, is only found in the Mekong River. It is migratory, moving between downstream habitats in Cambodia upstream to northern Thailand and Laos each year to spawn. Some experts fear the Xayaburi dam could block the migration and drive the giant catfish to extinction. (Photo by Courtesy of Zeb Hogan/University of Nevada, Reno)

“A team of expert cavers and photographers had been exploring caves in the Chongquing province of China – when they were amazed to discover the entrance to a hidden cave that was previously undiscovered. And they were stunned when they managed to enter the ginormous cave – and found that it was so large there was even a cloud inside it – a cave so large it has its own weather system. Photographer and caver Robbie Shone, from Manchester, was part of a team of 15 explorers on a month-long expedition who stumbled across the natural wonder”. – Caters News

A member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) pose for a picture at a camp in the Colombian mountains on February 2005. (Photo by Frank Piasecki Poulsen)

In this Friday, February 5, 2016 picture, Egyptian farmer Ahmed Ayman, 14, rides his trained donkey as he jumps over a barrier in the Nile Delta village of Al-Arid about 150 kilometers north of Cairo, Egypt. He discovered the donkey's talent after she jumped over a small irrigation canal. (Photo by Amr Nabil/AP Photo)

In this Saturday, March 21, 2015 photo, a porter rests carrying supplies for the upcoming climbing season, near the Everest Base camp, Nepal. Nepal has cleared more than 300 mountaineers to climb Mount Everest after they had to abandon last year's efforts when an ice avalanche killed 16 guides in the mountain's deadliest disaster, an official said on March 20. The three-month climbing season for Everest, the world's tallest mountain, begins in March. (Photo by Tashi Sherpa/AP Photo)

A model wears a creation for the Elie Saab Spring-Summer 2022 Haute Couture fashion collection, in Paris, Wednesday, January 26, 2022. (Photo by Francois Mori/AP Photo)

Visitors watch a California sea lion at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park on Thursday May 26, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

An undated handout photo made available by the Zerynthia Association shows the pupa of an amicta moneiba, a recently discovered species of moth endemic to La Gomera and El Hierro islands in the Canary Islands, Spain (issued 01 July 2020), as those two islands pulled apart from the rest of the Canary Islands 2.5 million years ago. The Institute of Evolutionary Biology of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Zerynthia Association have recently discovered two new moth species in El Hierro and La Gomera. (Photo by Yeray Monasterio/Zerynthia/EPA/EFE)