A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)

Kumbuka, a male silverback gorilla sits next to the keeper's chalk board in his enclosure at London Zoo, Thursday, January 2, 2014. Home to more than 850 different species, zoo keepers welcomed in the New Year armed with clipboards as they made a note of every single animal. The compulsory annual count is required as part of ZSL London Zoo's zoo license, and every creature, from the tiny leaf cutter ants to the huge silverback gorilla is duly noted and accounted for. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

Yu Jietao, 26-year-old wood carver, sits in his homemade wooden car along a street in Guangfeng county of Shangrao, Jiangxi province, China February 9, 2015. The car can travel as fast as 30 km (18.6 miles) per hour, local media reported. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Former Olympic gymnast Nastia Liukin performs a flip while throwing the ceremonial first pitch during a baseball game between the Los Angeles Angels and the Tampa Bay Rays, Friday, July 14, 2017, in Anaheim, Calif. (Photo by Jae C. Hong/AP Photo)

Wang Zhengqing, a 74 year old pneumoconiosis patient, smokes his pipe at Yangjia Hospital in Wuyi County, Zhejiang Province, China October 19, 2015. Former miner Wang was diagnosed with the disease, which is caused by dust inhalation, when he was 24 and has lived at Yangjia Hospital for ten years. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

On July 7, Chinese archaeologists from the Academy of Social Sciences announced that they have reconstituted a 5,300-year-old Mongolion pottery statue found at a relic site in North China, according to Xinhua news agency.

Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

This perfectly-timed GoPro snap captures the moment an angrymagpiecame within inches of a biker, as swooping season takes hold in Australia. The notoriously aggressive bird can be seen flying with its wings tucked in so it looks exactly like a torpedo in the magnificent photograph from Middlemount, Queensland. Retail businesswoman Monique Newton, 53 was riding pillion with a friend when she spied the divebombing bird – but rather than speed off, they slowed down to capture it up close. (Photo by Monique Newton/Caters News Agency)