A newborn baby giraffe shows its tongue at the Planckendael zoo in Mechelen, 25 kilometers North of Brussels, Tuesday, February 18, 2014. The calf was born on Valentines day, February 14, and has a heart shaped spot on the hip. (Photo by Yves Logghe/AP Photo)

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these striking images of 2017 are no exception. The photo highlights include incredible snapshots of the natural world as well as some awesome animal and human encounters. The vibrant gallery also shows thrill-seekers pushing themselves to the limit with breathtaking stunts captured in perfect clarity. The pictures have been taken by a host of photographers from around the world. Here: The two lion cubs singing their hearts out at Antelope park in Zimbabwe. (Photo by David Jenkins/Caters News Agency)

In this January 3, 2018 photo several female Gelada baboons, also known as bleeding-heart baboons, cuddle with their youngs in order to keep warm at the Wilhelma zoo in Stuttgart, Germany. (Photo by Sebastian Gollnow/DPA via AP Photo)

An employee builds up the figure of the Queen of Hearts from the movie Alice in Wonderland (2010) in the immersive exhibition “Tim Burton's Labyrinth” in Berlin on July 8, 2024. From July 19, 2024, the international exhibition ”Tim Burton's Labyrinth” can be experienced at the Radsetzerei in Berlin. (Photo by Ronny Hartmann/AFP Photo)

A dog sits in a plastic basin filled with water in Taipei, Taiwan, 05 May 2018. Betel nut seller Mr Luo, the dog's owner, said he puts his dog Ah Dai (Stupid Guy) in the water-filled basin whenever the weather get hot. Luo has a dozen pairs of glasses for Ah Dai, so the dog wears different glasses every day and many tourists take photos of Ah Dai. (Photo by David Chang/EPA/EFE)

Workers clad in a dog and a wild boar costumes, to represent the outgoing year of the dog and incoming year of the wild boar, clean windows on the side of a hotel in Tokyo on December 13, 2018. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP Photo)

The digital art piece “Visor” by Mad Dog Jones is pictured ahead of an auction at Sotheby’s in London, United Kingdom on June 1, 2021. (Photo by Mad Dog Jones/Reuters)

A vendor (C) cuts slaughtered dogs for sale at his roadside stall in Duong Noi village, outside Hanoi December 16, 2011. While animal rights activists have condemned eating dog meat as cruel treatment of the animals, it is still an accepted popular delicacy for some Vietnamese, as well in some other Asian countries. Duong Noi is well-known as a dog-meat village, where hundreds of dogs are killed each day for sale as popular traditional food. Dog-eating as a custom is rooted in Vietnam and was developed as a result of poverty. One kilogram of dog meat costs about 130,000 dongs ($6.2). (Photo by Reuters/Kham)