Anand Varma, a U.S. photographer working for the National Geographic, won the First Prize in the Nature Category, Stories, of the 2015 World Press Photo contest with his series of pictures, which includes this one of spores of a fungus landing on an ant, penetrating its exoskeleton and entering its brain, compelling the host to leave its normal habitat on the forest floor and scale a nearby tree, in this picture taken January 22, 2014 and released by the World Press Photo on February 12, 2015. (Photo by Anand Varma/Reuters/National Geographic/World Press Photo)

A diver swims near sculptures during the inauguration of the underwater museum in Ayia Napa, Cyprus, 01 August 2021. At the new Ayia Napa Underwater Sculpture Museum (MUSAN), located in the Pernera area of Ayia Napa, visitors, both swimmers with mask and flippers and divers, will be able to tour around an underwater forest, the first of its kind in the world. (Photo by Jason Decaires Taylor/EPA/EFE)

An Asian elephant called “Plai Deaw” goes for a walk on a mountain road in Nakhon Nayok, Thailand on July 11, 2022. The bull has become well known in the area for his taste for venturing out from the deep forest and emerging among cars and village homes. Thailand has an estimated 2,000 Asian elephants living in the wild but there is often conflict when they come into contact with humans on roads and in villages. A similar number of elephants are kept captive where they work in zoos and are hired out for religious festivals and weddings. (Photo by Mongkol Pitakmoo/ViralPress)

“Atheris is a genus of venomous vipers found only in tropical subsaharan Africa, excluding southern Africa. Confined to rain forest areas, many members have isolated and fragmented distributions. In an interesting example of convergent evolution, they show many similarities to the arboreal pit vipers of Asia and South America”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Atheris squamigera. (Photo by David Williams)

Firefighters work to put out flames during a wildfire in Sokcho, South Korea, April 5, 2019. South Korea grappled with the massive blaze that roared through forests and cities along the eastern coast, declaring a national emergency and mobilizing all available resources to bring the inferno under control. (Photo by Yonhap via Reuters)

"I am completely inspired by the natural world. Beauty is everywhere. It is the growth of the forest, the depth of the sea, and the curve of the bone. It is skin, scales, bark, and tide pool ripples. It is texture, and it is raw. I am a translator of life, and I am compelled to narrate it."

Only 156 people remained in the tribe when Jan visited in Accham District, Nepal, January 2016. Hidden deep in the Himalayan forest is one of the world’s last enduring nomadic tribes who are resisting attempts to move them into permanent settlements. (Photo by Jan Moller Hansen/Barcroft Images)

If you were to meet this guy in the woods, especially if it’s nighttime, you’d probably think that it’s a local troll or a yeti. However, in reality, he’s no yeti. His name is Mick Dodge, and before deciding to live in the woods, he was a marine for six years at Fort Lewis. It is hard to tell what moved him to leave the busy life of the city and start living in the Hoh Rain Forest. It could have been that he decided the leave the stressful life of the city, or maybe he simply loves the solitary life of a hermit. Another thing that is peculiar about Mick Dodge is that most of the time he walks barefoot, hence the nickname “The Barefoot Sensei”.