Long-eared owl chicks sit on a spruce branch in a park near St Petersburg, Russia on March 3, 2025. (Photo by Artem Priakhin/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man looks inside an overturned truck after an accident along the road between Nouahibou and Nouakchott, Mauritania December 3, 2009. (Photo by Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

Miniscule larvae carve winding tunnels as they eat through small leaves in a small forest near the town of Velbert in western Germany in July 2022. The hungry green sawfly larvae measure just three millimetres in length and are difficult to spot on the leaves of the beech tree unless up close. (Photo by Christian Brockes/Solent News)

Runner-up; Hon Yen marine ecosystem. Phu Yen, Vietnam. Every year between May and August, the coral of this rich and diverse ecosystem becomes exposed at low tide. (Photo by Truong Hoai Vu/Royal Society of Biology Photography Competition)

One-year-old female giant panda cub Nuan Nuan reacts inside her enclosure during joint birthday celebrations for the panda and its ten-year-old mother Liang Liang at the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur on August 23, 2016. Giant pandas Liang Liang, aged 10, and her Malaysian-born cub Nuan Nuan, 1, were born on August 23, 2006 and August 18, 2015 respectivetly. (Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP Photo)

“Lofoten Glow”. I was desperately searching a good sunrise spot this particular morning. Normally Storvatnet Lake is completely covered in snow, so you can only imagine my surprise when I saw these crazy ice formations almost being shot out of the frozen lake. I put my crampons on and took a big risk walking out. I could hear the ice cracking underneath my feet, and when you’re all alone in a fjord/canyon like this – the cracks are echoed and sound really frightening. Was it worth it? I sure think so! Photo location: Storvatnet, Lofoten Islands in Northern Norway. (Photo and caption by Stian Klo/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Children dressed as Santa Clause play with a soccer ball as they celebrate at their school ahead of Christmas in Chennai on December 23, 2021. (Photo by Arun Sankar/AFP Photo)

A family member of the Toraja ethnic group prepares the bodies of exhumed relatives from a community burial site to be cleaned and dressed in a series of traditional ceremonies honouring the dead known as Manene at Torea village, in North Toraja, Indonesia's South Sulawesi on August 17, 2022. (Photo by Andri Saputra/AFP Photo)