A man transports chicken on a motorscooter to the chicken market in Kathmandu, Nepal, 07 February 2023. Cases of bird flu, or avian influenza, infections have been confirmed in three places in the Kathmandu Valley, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development (MoALD), causing a drop in sales of chicken in the valley after the spread of the flu news. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

Villagers play traditional games as they take part in a Chyrachka rite during the Shrovetide celebration in the village of Tonezh, some 280 km of Minsk, on March 10, 2019. Chyrachka is a kind of birds that live in this area. (Photo by Sergei Gapon/AFP Photo)

Flamingos preparing to take flight are reflected on Lake Tuz, which hosts thousands of flamingos every year, in Ankara, Turkiye, on June 24, 2025. This year, the lake has seen a decline in flamingo numbers due to drought, prompting the birds to shift their migration route to other wetlands across Turkiye. (Photo by Harun Ozalp/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

A golden huddle by Minqiang Lu, China. Two females and a male golden snub-nosed monkey huddle together to keep warm in the extreme cold. Threatened by forest loss and fragmentation, this endangered species is confined to central China. Restricted to living high up in the temperate forests, these monkeys – here in the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi province – feed mostly in the trees, on leaves, bark, buds and lichen. In heavy wind and snow, Minqiang walked up the mountain carrying his equipment. He stayed for half an hour in temperatures of –10C opposite the tree where the group was huddled before achieving this eye-level composition. (Photo by Minqiang Lu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

The Genghis Khan Statue is a 40-metre tall statue of Ghengis Khan (1162–1227) on horseback, on the bank of the Tuul River at Tsonjin Boldog (54 km east of the capital Ulan Bator), where according to legend, he found a golden whip.

Against the scorching sun, a hungry jackal chases a flock of birds looking for a quick morning snack. Taken in South Africa's Kgalagadi Transfrontier National Park, these images capture the moment a lone hunter tries, and then succeeds, in his pursuit. (Photo by John Mullineux/Solent News)

Photographer Jim Zielinski from Florida, USA, captured this hilarious moment when a squirrel spied a tasty treat inside a novelty horse's head bird feeder in his back garden. (Photo by Jim Zielinski/Caters News)