Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

This photograph taken on June 20, 2021 and received courtesy of Radchadawan Peungprasopporn via her Facebook account on June 22, 2021 shows an elephant searching for food in the kitchen of her home in Pa La-U, Hua Hin. (Photo by Radchadawan Peungprasopporn/Facebook via AFP Photo)

A man dressed as Santa Claus lights a Christmas tree on City Hall square in Copenhagen, Denmark, on November 27, 2022. (Photo by Sergei Gapon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Animal rights activists dressed up as rabbit carry signs that read “Ajinomoto Stop Animal Testing” as they protest outside Ajinomoto headquarters in Kuala Lumpur on January 20, 2023, ahead of Lunar New Year. Activists call for the end of Japanese food company testing on rabbits, dogs, pigs and other animals. (Photo by Arif Kartono/AFP Photo)

Greece's Apostolos Angelis (L) and Austria's Felix Leitner compete during the men's 20 km individual event of the IBU Biathlon World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic on February 14, 2024. (Photo by Joe Klamar/AFP Photo)

Play-fighting cheetah siblings at the Zimanga game reserve in South Africa in the second decade of November 2024 were spotted by Gavin Bickerton-Jones, an amateur photographer, who said: “It is a bit scary at first being so close, but also a privilege for them to let you share their space”. (Photo by Gavin Bickerton-Jones/Solent News)

In this January 27, 2015 photo, penguins walk on the shore of Bahia Almirantazgo in Antarctica. Antarctica “is big and it's changing and it affects the rest of the planet and we can't afford to ignore what's going on down there”, said David Vaughan, science director of the British Antarctic Survey. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

A Sphynx cat stares sitting on its owner's lap during an international feline beauty competition in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, April 14, 2018. More than 250 cats take part in the two-day competition in the Romanian capital. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)