Combat between two male stag beetles, Italy, 2022. During the mating season, male stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) go into a frenzy, with lively but harmless clashes, in which bigger males often have the advantage over smaller ones due to their impressive mandibles. Longer larval development and genetic traits can increase the size of some individuals, but all saproxylic beetles are threatened by poor forest management, logging and dead wood removal to “clean” the forest. (Photo by Iacopo Nerozzi)

“Titanoboa is a genus of snake that lived approximately 58–60 million years ago, during the Paleocene epoch, a 10-million-year period immediately following the dinosaur extinction event. The only known species is the Titanoboa cerrejonensis, the largest snake ever discovered, which supplanted the previous record holder, Gigantophis”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Leah Del Rio views a replica of the prehistoric Titanoboa, the largest snake to ever live, on display at Grand Central Terminal on March 23, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

This dyed straw is grown in Ban Dong Saen Suk, Sakon Nakhon province, Thailand on September 28, 2021. Sarawut Intharap, 38, an engineer who capture the image, said: “The straw is entwined together to make mats used for sleeping and eating and they are sold at around £2.50 (3.40 USD) a mat at the local market”. (Photo by Sarawut Intarob/Solent News)

The British Ecological Society has announced the winners of its annual photography competition, Capturing Ecology. Taken by international ecologists and students, the winning images will be exhibited at the society’s joint annual meeting in Ghent in December. Here: Overall runner-up; Toucan, Mark Tatchell. (Photo by Mark Tatchell/British Ecological Society)

Nyah and Thea watch as the top end storms roll in across Nightcliff beach and Jetty in Darwin, Australia on Wednesday, January 17, 2024. (Photo by Neve Brissenden/AAP Image)

A Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) veterinarian and security personnel back away from a tranquilised black-Rhino calf August 30, 2017 after she appeared to prematurely overcome the sedative at the Nairobi National Park, during an identification-tagging excercise to ease quick identification of resident rhino during anti-poaching patrols. (Photo by Tony Karumba/AFP Photo)

A woman collects lotus flowers at a lake in Hanoi, Vietnam, 20 June 2018. Lotus flowers, that bloom every June, are collected by Vietnamese people for their inner parts to be mixed with tea for fragrance. (Photo by Luong Thai Linh/EPA/EFE)

A man rides a horse through flames during the annual “Luminarias” celebration on the eve of Saint Anthony's day, Spain's patron saint of animals, in the village of San Bartolome de Pinares, northwest of Madrid, Spain, January 16, 2017. (Photo by Paul Hanna/Reuters)