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)

“Theyyam”. Preparation for the Theyyam performance in the surroundings of Kasaragod city. Theyyam is a popular ritual dance form of North Kerala, particularly in Kannur and Kasargod districts. The Theyyam represents a mythological, divine or heroic character. Make up of Theyyams is done by specialist. There are different types of face painting for which primarily and secondary colours are used. Therefore it is essential that the makeup man should have perfect knowledge of primary and secondary colour combinations. Sometimes, it takes several hours to paint each face. Photo location: Kasaragod, India. (Photo and caption by Rafal Ziejewski/National Geographic Photo Contest)

A sun bear is offered chocolate by a visitor in its enclosure at a zoo in Bandung on January 18, 2017. Animal rights activists on January 18 demanded the closure of an Indonesian zoo after skeletal sun bears were pictured begging for food from visitors and eating their own dung. (Photo by Timur Matahari/AFP Photo)

Participants lay down on a street covered by coloured powder during the annual Bangkok Color Run in Bangkok, Thailand April 1, 2017. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

A Siberian tiger at a photographer for getting too much in its face during the presentation of two new Siberian tigers at Cabarceno Natural Reserve in Cabarceno, northern Spain, 21 July 2014. (Photo by Pedro Puente Hoyos/EPA)

A pilgrim holds up the cross after it was thrown by an Orthodox priest into the water, during an epiphany ceremony to bless the sea, on the southeast resort of Ayia Napa, Cyprus, Friday, January 6, 2023. By tradition, a crucifix is cast into the waters of a lake or river, and it is believed that the person who retrieves it will be freed from evil spirits and will be healthy through the year. (Photo by Petros Karadjias/AP Photo)

Two keepers at the Australian Reptile Park in New South Wales struggle with Leonardo, an alligator snapping turtle weighing 45 kilos at the park in Gosford, NSW 2 July 2015. The 50cm long Leonardo – who was smuggled illegally into Australia and found in a Sydney sewer in November 2000 – was removed from his tank for an annual health check. And as a gesture to onlooking press photographers demonstrated his strength by snapping a piece of bamboo in half. (Photo by EPA/HO)

A Kashmiri villager shouts freedom slogans during the funeral procession of Asadullaha Kumar in Mandhaal village, some 70 Kilometers south of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Saturday, December 3, 2016. Hundreds of angry villagers blocked the Srinagar-Jammu highway for hours alleging Kumar was tortured and then shot by Indian forces while he was performing his duty as a security guard at a government fishery. Police officers denied the allegation and said he was killed in cross-firing during an overnight counter-insurgency operation in south Kashmir. (Photo by Dar Yasin/AP Photo)