Guardian of the Mangroves – Overall Winner. Tanya Houppermans, Cuba. A curious American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) swims right up to Tanya, at Gardens of the Queen (Jardines De La Reina), an archipelago off the coast of Cuba. It has been strictly protected since 1996, and is one of the most untouched marine ecosystems in the world. ‍ “The healthy population of American crocodiles is down to the pristine condition of the mangroves and I wanted to capture close ups of this gentle giant in its natural habitat. I hope this image can illustrate that protecting areas like this is so critical”. (Photo by Tanya Griffin Houppermans/Mangrove Photographer of the Year)

In this February 4, 2016 picture a masked participant of the traditional carnival parade poses in the streets of the village of Kippel in the Loetschental valley, southwestern part of Switzerland. During this sinister carnival, participants wearing wooden masks and animal furs, crowd the streets of the villages to scare the people. (Photo by Dominic Steinmann/Keystone via AP Photo)

Madison Chock, top, and Evan Bates, bottom, perform during the ice dance rhythm dance competition at the U.S. figure skating championships Friday, January 24, 2025, in Wichita, Kan. (Photo by Travis Heying/AP Photo)

Visitors crowd an artificial wave swimming pool at a tourist resort to escape the summer heat in Daying county of Suining, Sichuan province, China, July 11, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

An undated handout photo made available by the Zerynthia Association shows the pupa of an amicta moneiba, a recently discovered species of moth endemic to La Gomera and El Hierro islands in the Canary Islands, Spain (issued 01 July 2020), as those two islands pulled apart from the rest of the Canary Islands 2.5 million years ago. The Institute of Evolutionary Biology of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Zerynthia Association have recently discovered two new moth species in El Hierro and La Gomera. (Photo by Yeray Monasterio/Zerynthia/EPA/EFE)

In this July 8, 2019, photo, a monkey pulls on the clothes of Saraswati Dangol as she arrives to feed monkeys in the forest near Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. For the past four years, Dangol has been bringing the bread every day to feed the monkeys. As soon as they see her with her white sack, they gather around her, some patiently waiting for their turn while others less patiently snatching the bread from her hands. Many of Dangol's regulars are elderly, or are mother or baby monkeys who are unable to fight for their share of food in the wild. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Migrants, part of a caravan traveling en route to the United States, carry an anteater that was hit by a car, according to them, as they walk on the road that links Arriaga and Tapanatepec, near Arriaga, Mexico, November 5, 2018. (Photo by Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters)

A picture made available on 08 July 2015 showsa lightning strikes during a heavy storm over Poznan in the night of 07 July 2015. Severe storms passed last night over Poland causing lots of damages to buildings, trees, electricity and railway tractions. (Photo by Lukasz Ogrodowczyk/EPA)