A seal playfully tries to bite the camera, taken on February 2016 in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. A group of friendly seals get up close and personal with the camera. The pod of brown fur seals, also known as “cape fur seals”, were shot in Plettenberg Bay in South Africa by dive tour operator Rainer Schimpf. The playful creatures prove they are not camera shy in the slightest as they they swim upside down, grin widely and attempt to bite the camera lens. (Photo by Rainer Schimpf/Barcroft Media)

A performer wearing costumes walk on stilts before a show during a lantern fair at the beginning of Chinese Lunar New Year, in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, February 11, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Two stags fight in a wildlife park in Aurach near Kitzbuehel, in the Austrian province of Tyrol. (Photo by Kerstin Joensson/Associated Press)

The barren landscapes of the south-western US provided inspiration for photographer David Clapp. He visited Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona as part of his project on other-worldy locations, with surreal results. Here: An infrared image at dusk of strange clay rock formations in Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah Wilderness in Farmington, New Mexico. (Photo by David Clapp/Barcroft Images)

Split-view of a killer whale at sunrise off the coast of Northern Norway. At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to pollution of the oceans, a new study says. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Science)

A reveler, dressed as a Brazilian national army soldier holding a mock weapon with flowers jutting out of it, participates in the annual Gay Pride Parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Sunday, June 18, 2017. (Photo by Nelson Antoine/AP Photo)

Pakistani female police commandos attend a training session in Nowshera, near Peshawar Pakistan, Wednesday, February 11, 2015. Authorities formed a Special Combat Unit after Taliban militants stormed a Peshawar school on Dec. 16, 2014 and massacred 150 children and teachers. (Photo by Mohammad Sajjad/AP Photo)

British Waters Wide Angle category runner-up. Grass snake swimming along a garden pond by Jack Perks (UK)in Nottinghamshire, UK. “I’m always on the lookout for unusual freshwater subjects and grass snakes are a species I’ve been after for years. I was told about a pond where the odd grass snake hangs around the lilly pads for frogs. I put my drysuit on and got into the water and could see one slithering along the surface. Slowly making my way towards it with my head only just poking above I got the spilt shot”. (Photo by Jack Perks/Underwater Photographer of the Year 2019)