“Sky burial or ritual dissection was once a common funerary practice in Tibet wherein a human corpse is cut in specific locations and placed on a mountaintop, exposing it to the elements or the mahabhuta and animals – especially to birds of prey. The location of the sky burial preparation and place of execution are understood in the Vajrayana traditions as charnel grounds. In Tibet the practice is known as jhator, which literally means, «giving alms to the birds»”. – Wikipedia

Photo: A burial master chops bones of a body to feed vultures during a celestial burial ceremony on April 19, 2006 in Dari County of Guoluo Prefecture, Qinghai Province, northwest China. Celestial burial is a traditional funeral of Tibetan people, which began in the 7th century. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow meets Clyde the Sea Lion, the star of SeaWorld San Diego's “Sea Lion Tonite”, at the marine-life park's Sea Lion and Otter Stadium on August 3, 2011 in San Diego, California. Crow and her sons spent the day a SeaWorld meeting, feeding and learning about sea turtles, penguins and sea lions, other park animal ambassadors. Crow was performing in San Diego on her summer concert tour with Kid Rock. (Photo by Mike Aguilera/SeaWorld San Diego via Getty Images)

One of the nine baby flamingos born at Bristol Zoo stands with the adults as they feed together on August 19, 2011 in Bristol, England. Nine flamingo chicks have hatched at Bristol Zoo Gardens in the last three months – the biggest number the Zoo has ever had. The chicks, which are Greater Flamingoes from Africa and southern Europe and range in age from four weeks to three months old, take the Zoo's total flock to 38 birds. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)

Winner – Animal Portraits: The pose by Mogens Trolle, Denmark. A young male proboscis monkey cocks his head slightly and closes his eyes. Unexpected pale blue eyelids now complement his immaculately groomed auburn hair. He poses for a few seconds as if in meditation. He is a wild visitor to the feeding station at Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary in Sabah, Borneo – “the most laid-back character”, says Trolle, “quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen on another monkey” – connects us, he hopes, with a fellow primate. (Photo by Mogens Trolle/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020)

In this photo taken Wednesday, December 5, 2018, a woman who scavenges recyclable materials from garbage for a living is seen through a cloud of smoke from burning trash, surrounded by Marabou storks who feed on the garbage, at the dump in the Dandora slum of Nairobi, Kenya. As the world meets again to tackle the growing threat of climate change, how the continent tackles the growing solid waste produced by its more than 1.2 billion residents, many of them eager consumers in growing economies, is a major question in the fight against climate change. (Photo by Ben Curtis/AP Photo)

A newly-hatched baby sea turtle makes its way into the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, as part of the Israeli Sea Turtle Rescue Center's conservation program, at a beach near Mikhmoret north of Tel Aviv, Israel September 9, 2019. Green turtles are endangered worldwide, the World Wildlife Fund says. Among other hazards, they are threatened by hunting, human encroachment on the beaches where they nest, and pollution of their feeding grounds offshore. According to the Israeli rescue center, only about 20 female green turtles nest along the Israeli Mediterranean coast during a breeding season that usually lasts from May until August. (Photo by Amir Cohen/Reuters)

A golden huddle by Minqiang Lu, China. Two females and a male golden snub-nosed monkey huddle together to keep warm in the extreme cold. Threatened by forest loss and fragmentation, this endangered species is confined to central China. Restricted to living high up in the temperate forests, these monkeys – here in the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi province – feed mostly in the trees, on leaves, bark, buds and lichen. In heavy wind and snow, Minqiang walked up the mountain carrying his equipment. He stayed for half an hour in temperatures of –10C opposite the tree where the group was huddled before achieving this eye-level composition. (Photo by Minqiang Lu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)