“I’d come to the Altai Mountains on an Adventure Sherpas tour. Our group of 12 was made up mostly of Minnesotans who’d left warm weather and falling leaves for frosty Mongolia. We’d come to sleep in cozy ger tents, the traditional yurt abode of the Mongolian steppe; sip mare’s milk tea; climb mountain glaciers; ride horses to an ancient battle site, and attend the annual Eagle Hunting Festival in Ölgiy...”. – Kathryn Kysar via The Star Tribune. Here: hunter Berek and his eagle outside his home. (Photo by Brad Ruoho/The Star Tribune)

A woman with a snake on her body, taken in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, April 2017. A holistic therapist uses snakes to massage her clients – claiming it cures depression and even helps victims of abuse. Instead of traditional massaging techniques, Sarah Zaad uses up to six pythons and boa constrictors on brave customers who want to relax or be treated for mental disorders. The flamboyant therapist from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil believes her snakes have a magic touch, which can benefit people by massaging their bodies. (Photo by Kadeh Ferreira/Barcroft Images)

Visitors look at an elephant swimming in a pool at Khao Kheow Zoo in Chonburi, east of Bangkok, Thailand on February 4, 2020. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Among the fish populations that could be harmed by the Xayaburi dam in Laos is the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest freshwater fish. The fish, which grows to 650 pounds and about 10 feet long, is only found in the Mekong River. It is migratory, moving between downstream habitats in Cambodia upstream to northern Thailand and Laos each year to spawn. Some experts fear the Xayaburi dam could block the migration and drive the giant catfish to extinction. (Photo by Courtesy of Zeb Hogan/University of Nevada, Reno)

A view through mist shows the Kirk of Saint Mary Magdalene in Primorsk, Leningrad Region, Russia on March 24, 2019. (Photo by Anton Vaganov/Reuters)

A person sits in a chair next to the Garzweiler lignite opencast mine at the Luetzerath village near Erkelenz, Germany, Tuesday, January 10, 2023. Environmental activists were locked in a standoff with police this week around the hamlet of Luetzerath that's due to be bulldozed for the expansion of a nearby lignite mine. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Giant bamboo cones, used to protect rice from overnight moisture during its drying process, in the Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh in the second decade of April 2025. (Photo by Bipul Ahmed/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A sacrificial camel gets a haircut with patterns at the animal market on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan September 22, 2015. Muslims across the world are preparing to celebrate the annual festival of Eid al-Adha or the Feast of the Sacrifice, which marks the end of the annual haj pilgrimage, by slaughtering goats, sheep, cows and camels in commemoration of the Prophet Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son to show obedience to Allah. Eid al-Adha in India falls on September 25. (Photo by Akhtar Soomro/Reuters)