McMurdo Station is a U.S. Antarctic research centre located on the southern tip of Ross Island, which is in the New Zealand-claimed Ross Dependency on the shore of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. It is operated by the United States through the United States Antarctic Program, a branch of the National Science Foundation. The station is the largest community in Antarctica, capable of supporting up to 1,258 residents, and serves as the United States Antarctic science facility. All personnel and cargo going to or coming from Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station first pass through McMurdo.

Traditional sculptures by Chin tribe in, Mindat, Myanmar, November 2016. In the mountains of Myanmar lives a tribe where the women have taken a unique approach to their beauty regime by decorating their faces with tattoos. The Chin people in the remote mountain town of Mindat, have been marking women in the area with intricate face tattoos for centuries. (Photo by Teh Han Lin/Barcroft Images)

Sergeant Andrew Garrett watches K-Dog, a bottlenose dolphin attached to Commander Task Unit 55.4.3, leap out of the water while training near the USS Gunston Hall March 18, 2003 in the Persian Gulf. (Photo by U.S. Navy/Getty Images)

South Korean youths play Pokemon Go on July 15, 2016 in Sokcho, South Korea. South Korea is not one of the initial Pokemon Go released countries, nor is the game likely to be released officially any time soon as the South Korean government does not allow Google to use its map; however, South Korean game enthusiasts are now visiting a handful of loophole areas in the north eastern side of the country near the border of North Korea to join the global frenzy of Pokemon Go. (Photo by Jean Chung/Getty Images)

A decorated elephant march at the Navam Perahera, a Buddhist pageant of elephants, dancers and drummers, in Colombo February 3, 2015. Over 50 elephants participated in the street parade for Gangaramaya temple's annual Perahera festival, along with a nightly procession of traditional dancers, fire twirlers and traditional musicians. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)

“Woman with Umbrella in Rain” by Raimund von Stillfried. Artist: Kusakabe Kimbei (Japanese, 1841–1934), 1870s. Commercial photography studios in Meiji-era Japan were renowned for the subtlety and refinement of their coloring techniques. This hand-tinted image of a young woman caught in a heavy rainstorm achieved its naturalistic effect by knitting together multiple strands of artifice: the greenery in the foreground was a studio prop; the flaps of the kimono were suspended by thin wires to create the impression of a strong wind; and long, diagonal marks were made on the negative to suggest streaks of rain. (Photo courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Members of the Albert Battery perform a gun salute during the Anzac Day dawn service held by the Currumbin RSL on the Gold Coast in Currumbin, Australia, 25 April 2016. The Anzac day marks the landing of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzac) troops at Gallipoli in what is today Turkey during WWI. World War One, also called the Great War, according to official statistics cost more than 37 million military and civilian casualties between 1914 and 1918. (Photo by Glenn Hunt/EPA)

Behaviour: Mammals category. Giant Gathering by Tony Wu, USA. Dozens of sperm whales mingled noisily off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast, stacked as far down as Tony could see. This was a congregation of dozens of social units, like a gathering of the clans. Aggregations like this could be a critical part of the whales’ rich social lives but are rarely reported. Some two thirds of the population was wiped out before commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This kind of major gathering could be “a sign that populations are recovering”, says Tony. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017)