Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft with crew members of Expedition 59/60 Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Nick Hague lifts off from the launch pad at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 15 March 2019. Hague, Koch, and Ovchinin will spend six-and-a-half months living and working aboard the International Space Station. (Photo by Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA/EFE)

Performers on boats take part in the Qintong Boat Festival at Qin Lake National Wetland Park on April 6, 2019 in Taizhou, Jiangsu Province of China. The boat festival is held around the Qingming Festival every year, and up to 10,000 participants from nearby villages and towns, with more than 500 boats, took part in the event this year. (Photo by Tang Dehong/VCG via Getty Images)

European bisons (also known as Wisent) at the Bison farm in Muczne, southeastern Poland, 30 December 2018. The Bison farm is a continuation of bison breeding in Bieszczady, which was started in 1963. Here visitors can admire the bison of Bialowieza-Caucasian line, also called the mountain race. The European Bison is the national animal of Poland. (Photo by Darek Delmanowicz/EPA/EFE)

Mary, 8-months-old female orphan elephant, drinks milk at Winga Baw Elephant Conservation Camp during the ceremony to mark World Elephant Day at Bago Region, Myanmar, 12 August 2017. Winga Baw Elephant Conservation Camp, 34-hectare former timber camp for logs located in Bago Region, currently has 14 elephants and was opened for recreation for locals as well as for tourists. World Elephant Day is marked annually on 12 August. (Photo by Lynn Bo Bo/EPA/EFE)

Filipinos riding on makeshift carts cross over an overflowing dam during a downpour in Las Pinas city, south of Manila, Philippines, 05 September 2017. According to the latest forecast from the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) state weather bureau, typhoon signals were raised over Northern Luzon brought by a tropical storm (local name: Tropical Storm Kiko) and warned fisherfolks and small seacrafts not to venture onto the sea due to big waves. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)

19 giant panda cubs, all born this year, meet the public at the Shenshuping Base of the China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda on October 13, 2017 in Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, China. So far China Conservation and Research Centre for the Giant Panda has successfully bred 42 giant pandas this year. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

A gory fight to the death between snarling dogs and captured wild boars. Gathered around a bamboo-walled arena, Indonesians in this remote part of Java island seem eager to watch the blood-curdling contests, known locally as “adu bagong” (boar fighting). Not surprisingly, animal rights activists are up in arms against the regular spectacle, which began in the 1960s when wild pig numbers in this area in West Java soared and they were hunted to protect crops. Here: Women share a joke as they walk to a paddy field in Cikawao village of Majalaya, West Java province, Indonesia, October 12, 2017. (Photo by Reuters/Beawiharta)