“Sokolica”. Sokolica, Poland. (Photo and caption by Marcin Kęsek/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

ATTENTION! All pictures are presented in high resolution. To see Hi-Res images – just TWICE click on any picture. In other words, click small picture – opens the BIG picture. Click BIG picture – opens VERY BIG picture.

A mahout rides an elephant at Tad Sae Waterfall outside Luang Prabang, Laos July 31, 2016. Protected by the United Nations cultural heritage agency UNESCO, Luang Prabang is one of the most alluring places in the region – a city that evokes old-world romance that has gained a reputation as a travellers' Shangri La. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)

A Nepalese man sits outside a Hindu temple as a goat rests on a parked scooter in Khokana, Lalitpur District, Nepal, Monday, September 26, 2016. Writing on the wall offers prayers to Hindu god Shiva. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

A dog dressed as Oscar the Grouch takes part in the annual halloween dog parade at Manhattan's Tompkins Square Park in New York, NY, U.S. on October 21, 2017. (Photo by Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

“Leopard Hunting a Stork”. “One-shot capture. I watched the leopard stalking the stork, I only had time to focus at 400mm, no time to change to high speed, I watched the stork, and as soon as it flapped its wings, I shot one shot”. (Photo by Paul Rifkin/National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year Contest)

England fan celebrates on top of an ambulance after England' s win over Sweden in the Russia 2018 World Cup quarter- final football match, in London on July 7, 2018. (Photo by Henry Nicholls/Reuters)

Juno, a Beluga whale, greets a young viewer at the Mystic aquarium in Connecticut, USA on December 5, 2015. (Photo by Tim Clayton/Corbis)