An areal view of the lake in the form of a heart in Rodgau, near Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, May 24, 2024. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Balloons take off during the 44th International Hot Air Balloon Festival in Chateau-d'Oex, Switzerland, on January 25, 2024. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

Italian illusionist Arturo Brachetti perfoms in the mirrored mazes of Camera Obscura on August 06, 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland. His show SOLO which is running at Pleasance’s EICC sees over fifty characters come to life through illusions, transformations and some magic tricks. (Photo by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images)

A severe thunderstorm hits Omaha, Neb., on Wednesday, June 12, 2024. (Photo by Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP Photo)

The Guinness World Record for the fastest tortoise in the world is held by Bertie, a South African leopard tortoise, who covered 5.49 metres in 19.59 seconds. (Photo by Paul Michael Hughes/Guinness World Records/PA Wire Press Association)

Commended. In late May, about a quarter of a million snow geese arrive from North America to nest on Wrangel Island, in northeastern Russia. They form the world's largest breeding colony of snow geese. Photographer Sergey Gorshkov spent two months on the remote island photographing the unfolding dramas. Arctic foxes take advantage of the abundance of eggs, caching surplus eggs for leaner times. But a goose (here the gander) is easily a match for a fox, which must rely on speed and guile to steal eggs. “The battles were fairly equal”, notes Sergey, “and I only saw a fox succeed in grabbing an egg on a couple of occasions, despite many attempts”. Surprisingly, “the geese lacked any sense of community spirit”, he adds, “and never reacted when a fox harassed a neighboring pair nesting close by”. (Photo by Sergey Gorshkov/Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer)

The New World porcupine, family Erethizontidae, 1280 Gram born at 11 April 2015 Inventory in Zoo. Counting trade Fairs Weighing the Zoo is at 7 May 2015 too the 108 Birthday Zoo Hagenbeck Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Imago/ZUMA Wire)

Syrian civil defence volunteers, known as the White Helmets, rescue a boy from the rubble following a reported barrel bomb attack on the Bab al- Nairab neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on November 24, 2016. (Photo by Ameer Alhalbi/AFP Photo)