A) 1st place WINNER – Roy Rimmer. “This rat was in an outdoor set I made, the set up is two meters long and a meter wide made of Perspex,it has a plywood front with holes cut in for my camera and flash guns, I placed two rusty paint cans in the set up and the rat would leap from one can too the other, I had to use flash to freeze the action”.

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)

October winner. “A burst of the aurora borealis over Kirkjufell, taken in September 2016. This shot has been a holy grail for me and was finally captured after many trips”. MICK RYAN, JUDGE: Iceland is a hotspot for aurora photography and this composition of the symmetric, free-standing Kirkjufell and the trident waterfall is much-sought after. If you can time your visit when the aurora “kp” index is high and know the settings for nighttime aurora images, you may end up with a beautiful photograph like this. (Photo by DВ/The Guardian)

A model holds a 18,18 carat pink diamond called “Fortune Pink” that could fetch 30 million U.S. dollars during a preview at Christie’s before the auction sale in Geneva, Switzerland on November 2, 2022. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)

People kiss before the start of the Carmelitas street party on the first day of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, February 9, 2024. (Photo by Bruna Prado/AP Photo)

Dressed in traditional make-up and costume a woman participates in the celebration for the Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles on Saturday, October 30, 2021. Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday where families welcome back the souls of their deceased relatives for a brief reunion that includes food, drink and celebration. (Photo by Richard Vogel/AP Photo)

A boat lies on a beach of the Isola Capo Rizzuto marine reserve in Calabria, Italy on November 14, 2021, where many wrecks of vessels used by migrants are abandoned. (Photo by Alessandro Serrano/AGF/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

The pelican, named “Ndagabar”, which means pelican in the local Wolof language, begins visiting the neighborhood in the early hours of the day in Saint-Louis, Senegal on November 02, 2024. The pelican, which 62-year-old retired fisherman Madiop Gueye, has been keeping in front of his house for five years, has become the center of both the neighborhood and the region, attracting the attention of both local and foreign tourists. (Photo by Cem Ozdel/Anadolu via Getty Images)