Finland's Heta Tuuri competes in the women's high jump qualification during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 25, 2023. (Photo by Ben Stansall/AFP Photo)

“Just hanging out”. As full autumn hits the valley of Hallingdal in Norway, this bear chills out in a tree which seems to barely cover its weight. Photo location: Flå, Hallingdal, Norway. (Photo and caption by Jorgen Tharaldsen/National Geographic Photo Contest)

“Aurora Hunters”. Photographers taking part in a photography tour on the Lofoten Islands in Norway, pull over on the side of the road to take a photo of their first ever Aurora Borealis after spotting it from their tour bus. Photo location: Rystad, Lofoten Islands, Norway. (Photo and caption by Mark Gee/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Members of a cheerleading team warm- up during the Russian Cheerleading Championship of students in Moscow on November 20, 2016. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)

Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

People walk past part of an outdoor display as preparations continue for the upcoming pop culture convention Comic Con in San Diego, California, U.S., July 17, 2018. (Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters)

Australian rider Jack Miller (on tarmac) of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and teammate Brad Binder of South Africa fall after a crash during the Malaysia Motorcycling Grand Prix 2024 at the Petronas Sepang International Circuit, in Sepang, Malaysia, 03 November 2024. (Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA)

A pelican investigates a fallen ketchup bottle outside a cafe in St James’s Park in London, England on October 9, 2025. The species has lived there for hundreds of years and remain a popular sight for visitors. Introduced in 1664 as a gift from the Russian ambassador, about 40 pelicans have since made the park their home. The bottle was safely retrieved from the pelican. (Photo by Stephen Chung/Alamy Live News)