A brown bear waits for food at the zoo in Madrid, Spain on July 30, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Sanz/Pacific Press/SIPA Press/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Leanna Arcila, 7, is licked by Watson, a therapy dog with the Pawtucket police department, as she receives her COVID-19 vaccination from Dr. Eugenio Fernandez at Nathanael Greene Elementary School in Pawtucket, R.I., Tuesday, December 7, 2021. Even as the U.S. reaches a COVID-19 milestone of roughly 200 million fully-vaccinated people, infections and hospitalizations are spiking, including in highly-vaccinated pockets of the country like New England. (Photo by David Goldman/AP Photo)

American model, golf instructor, former professional golfer and social media personality Paige Spiranac drove fans wild by dressing up as Jessica Rabbit for Halloween on October 30, 2025. (Photoby X @PaigeSpiranac)

A kingfisher plunged into the water in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, UK in the first decade of June 2025, to grab a fish for lunch – but its prey twisted free in a last-second escape. (Photo by Alan Benson/Caters News Agency)

An elephant in Amboseli National Park in Kenya, June 2021. Gurcharan Roopra, 42, a Nairobi-born engineer-turned-wildlife photographer, has dedicated the past four years of his career to photographing these animals. He spends hours in his workshop camouflaging and encasing his equipment with protective gear before laying his camera in the path of lions, elephants, rhino, zebra and buffalo. (Photo by Gurcharan Roopra/Mercury Press)

A Herero man holds the head of a freshly butchered cow, killed to supply meat for a funeral, 2012. (Photo by Jim Naughten, courtesy of Klompching Gallery, New York)

A bird is cleaned at the International Bird Rescue in Fairfield, California January 20, 2015. A gooey, unknown material discovered on the eastern shores of San Francisco Bay is clinging to the feathers of birds, and more than 100 birds, mostly species of oceangoing, diving ducks, have died after their feathers were fouled by the viscous substance now undergoing testing at state labs in Sacramento. (Photo by Robert Galbraith/Reuters)

Runner-up. “The heavens opened and the streets around Shibuya, Tokyo, were suddenly drenched in even more colour and movement. I was taking photos (my friend was holding the umbrella) when I noticed this woman at the crossing. I’m pleased with the futuristic feel of the image”. (Photo by Katherine Bridgestock/The Guardian)