Two monitor lizards wrestle at Singapore Botanic Gardens on February 7, 2022. (Photo by Xinhua News Agency/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A gosling sits in the plumage of its mother, in a meadow in Frankfurt, Germany, Saturday, April 13, 2024. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Pictured is the sunset at Stonehenge in Wiltshire on Saturday night, September 24, 2022. (Photo by Nick Bull/pictureexclusive.com)

A highland cow in Purbeck, Dorset shows off for the camera in the second decade of February 2023. (Photo by Kate Fry/Bournemouth News)

A hungry pelican is shown in a high-speed aerial pursuit of a rival's fish dinner. Having caught the fish, the osprey had to fend off competition from the much bigger bird. These stunning pictures were captured by Hanping Xiao in Sebastian Inlet State Park, Florida, USA in February 2023. (Photo by Hanping Xiao/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A pelican on a lake in California in the first decade of January 2024 deftly snares a large trout after scooping it up, tossing it into the air and catching it in its bill. (Photo by Jiahong Zeng/Solent news)

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)