A wildlife caregiver holds an orphaned wombat at the Native Wildlife Rescue center on January 29, 2020 in Robertson, Australia. The center has taken in many burned kangaroos and wallabies injured in recent bushfires. Wombat orphans are often rescued from the pouch of their mothers struck by vehicles. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

People dressed as mermaids and mermen take part in the group swim during the MerMagic Convention at the Freedom Aquatic & Fitness Center in Manassas, Virginia on March 4, 2023. The event bills itself as the “World's Largest Mermaid Convention”. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP Photo)

Every year, participants in the Burning Man Festival descend on the playa of Nevada's Black Rock Desert to form a temporary city – a self-reliant community populated by performers, artists, free spirits, and more. Last week, an estimated 68,000 people came to Burning Man 2013 from all over the world to dance, express themselves, and take in the spectacle. Gathered below are some of the sights from the festival, which lasted a week and came to its conclusion yesterday

Breath at sunset, captures a sea turtle at a dive site called Black Rock. Kāʻanapali, Hawaiʻi, August 2013. (Photo by Christopher Doherty/Smithsonian.com)

“The Wild Animal Sanctuary is a U.S. organization that specializes in rescuing and caring for large predators which are being ill-treated, for which their owners can no longer care, or which might otherwise be euthanized. Created in 1980, The Wild Animal Sanctuary is situated on 720 acres (291 ha) of grassland near Keenesburg, Colorado North of Denver, and has helped over 1,000 animals since it first opened. As of 2010, it was home to over 290 animals”. – Wikipedia

Photo: Rescued brown and black bears feed at The Wild Animal Sanctuary on October 20, 2011 in Keenesburg, Colorado. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

A pigeon rests on a wild iguana in a tree inside Seminario Park in Guayaquil, Ecuador, Thursday, April 3, 2014. Pigeons coexist with the wild iguanas at this park in the middle of the city surrounded by savannah. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

Students from Cambridge University in England make their way home along Trinity Lane after celebrating the end of the academic year at a May Ball in Trinity College on June 18, 2019. (Photo by Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)

A monkey licks ice during the annual “monkey buffet” in Lopburi province, some 150 kms north of Bangkok on November 24, 2013. More than 2,000 kilos of fruits and vegetables were offered to the monkeys during the annual festival to help promote tourism in the area. (Photo by Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP Photo)