Tip turkey, dumpster chook, rubbish raptor – the Australian white ibis goes by many unflattering names. But it is a true urban success story, scavenging to survive in cities across Australia as wetlands have been lost. Wildlife photographer Rick Stevens captured them in Sydney. Here: Of all the species affected by river regulation in Australia, the ibis is one of the few that has changed its behaviour and moved to coastal cities. (Photo by Rick Stevens/The Guardian)

Fossil records indicate that this early lizard, Megalania (Megalania prisca or Varanus priscus), was a whopping seven metres in length. They were part of a megafaunal assemblage that inhabited southern Australia during the Pleistocene. The youngest fossil remains date to around 50,000 years ago. The first aboriginal settlers of Australia might have encountered them and been a factor in their extinction. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)

The Tree Projects team spent 67 days documenting one eucalyptus regnans in the Styx valley of Tasmania. Using a combination of tree-climbing and elaborate arboreal rigging techniques, they produced an intimate portrait from an impossible perspective of one of the world’s largest individual flowering trees, which goes by several common names. These photos document the process that resulted in an extraordinary ultra high-definition photograph. Here: Haley nears the top of the tree. (Photo by Steven Pearce/The Tree Projects/The Guardian)

When it opened in 1955, the Grande Hotel in the Indian Ocean city of Beira was one of the most luxurious in Africa. Photojournalist Fellipe Abreu documents the lives of the 3,500 people who now fill this long-closed hotel to capacity. (Photo by Fellipe Abreu/The Guardian)

Forrest Walker, “Police Walk”. Walker describes this shot, taken in 2015 at the last officially permitted Pride parade in Istanbul, as a tense and surreal experience. His focus is on a woman walking calmly in front of a line of riot police, her attitude part defiance and part performance. (Photo by Forrest Walker/All About Photo awards 2025 via The Guardian)

Street photographer Yassine Alaoui Ismaili follows 16-year-old Emeer Guesmi, aka B-boy Zulu Rema, as he trains and performs breakdance moves – all without the use of his legs. At a breakdance championship in Tunisia, Casablanca-based street photographer Yassine Alaoui Ismaili noticed an unusual competitor: Emeer Guesmi, dancing without the aid of his lower legs. He started following him as he trained and performed. (Photo by Yassine Alaoui Ismaili/The Guardian)

In 1994, after the fall of the Soviet Union, all Ukrainians had to get a new passport – and photographer Alexander Chekmenev was on hand to take their photos. The snatched extra shots he took are remarkable in their honesty and tenderness. (Photo by Alexander Chekmenev/The Guardian)

These spectacular images of the universe are the finalists in the 2016 CWAS “David Malin” awards. The annual competition, which celebrates the best astronomy images taken by Australian photographers, is part of AstroFest 2016. The winners will be announced on 16 July. An associated exhibition opens the following day at the CSIRO Parkes Observatory visitors centre, and a second exhibition will also travel to selected venues around Australia. Here: Mars and its Rival Antares and the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. (Photo by Phil Hart/CWAS/The Guardian)