Meet the world's smoothest cuddliest hedgehog. Names after brave hero, but Nelson is completely bald so when curled up he looks like an egg. Doesn't have a single prickle or strand of hair. Thought to be suffering a stress related alopecia following a trauma in the wild. Volunteers have been massaging him for half an hour a day for the last year to encourage spikes to grow. Now given up but he still gets daily massages because he enjoys them so much and to keep his cuddle skin soft and smooth. Unlike his namesake Nelson could not defend himself so will live out his days at the Foxy Lodge Wildlife Rescue in Hemsby, England. (Photo by Jeremy Durkin)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)

Bloodthirsty by Thomas P. Peschak, Germany/South Africa — winner, Behaviour: birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds. The finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up, so they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave their nests the boobies tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A polar bear whose bottom half is caked in oily black gunk. A whale wrapped in striped fabric: a pseudo straightjacket. These are the messes climate change leaves behind, the things we know are happening but often don’t have the opportunity to see with our own eyes. Swiss street art duo Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni, otherwise known as NeverCrew, met in art school when they were 15 and started making work together soon after. As a team, the artists adorn the world with eye-popping and gut-wrenching images depicting the consequences of humanity’s actions on earth. (Photo by NeverCrew/The Huffington Post)

Cyclists desperately try to keep their heavily-laden bicycles upright as they arrive at a market with baskets full of pineapples on August 23, 2018. The men travel up to 12 and a half miles with two baskets tied to the sides of their bikes, carrying between 50 and 100 pineapples to sell. Each of the bicycles is so heavily laden with fruit it is impossible for the men to actually ride their bikes, instead having to walk alongside them. When they arrive at the market place in Madhupur, Bangladesh, buyers will pay up to 30 Taka for a pineapple – the equivalent of around 28 pence. (Photo by Abdul Momin/Solent News & Photo Agency UK)

Police detain a woman protesting against the court verdict for Yuliy Boyarshinov, and Viktor Filinkov, members of a left-wing group Set (Network) at the Western regional military court in St.Petersburg, Russia, Monday, June 22, 2020. A Russian military court convicted two members of a left-wing youth group of terrorism Monday and sentenced them to prison terms of five and a half and seven years, in a case that human rights groups called fabricated and based on coerced testimony. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

Kevin Russ, a photographer & image moderator for iStockphoto, grew up in Arroyo Grande, California. In 2003, he made the move to Portland, planning to study at Multnomah Bible College. Finding the workload to be minimal, Kevin invested in a camera, filling his free time and finding himself instantly smitten with the craft. A year and a half later, photography had evolved into his full-time job. However, after 4 years of consistent portrait work, Kevin became burnt out and took a step back from photography altogether. Two years later, he picked up the camera again and now spends the majority of his time on the road, exploring & photographing the rustic landscapes & wildlife he encounters.

In this May 2016 photo released by The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey, a boat sails near a coral reef that has been bleached white by heat stress in the Maldives. oral reefs, unique underwater ecosystems that sustain a quarter of the world's marine species and half a billion people, are dying on an unprecedented scale. Scientists are racing to prevent a complete wipeout within decades. (Photo by The Ocean Agency/XL Catlin Seaview Survey via AP Photo)