Merit: A Night at Deadvlei. The night before returning to Windhoek, we spent several hours at Deadveli. The moon was bright enough to illuminate the sand dunes in the distance, but the skies were still dark enough to clearly see the milky way and magellanic clouds. Deadveli means “dead marsh. The camelthorn trees are believed to be about 900 years old, but have not decomposed because the environment is so dry. (Photo and caption by Beth McCarley/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest)

Dead sperm whales are seen washed up on a beach on Texel Island, The Netherlands, January 13, 2016. The five sperm whales that beached on the Dutch lsland of Texel on Tuesday have died overnight, Dutch media reported. It is extremely unusual for so many whales to be in Dutch waters, a spokesman for the Ecomare marine centre told local paper Noordhollands Dagblad. Efforts to get the whales back into open water on Tuesday evening failed and rescuers finally withdrew from the beach at around midnight. The area of beach where the whales are has been closed to the public, to minimise the distress to the animals. (Photo by Cris Toala Olivares/Reuters)

The little new born wombat baby APARI sitting in its mothers pouch at the zoo in Duisburg, Germany, Thursday, March 29, 2018. Wombat mother TINSEL once was found in the pouch of its dead mother on a street in Australia and was raised by zookeepers before she came to Germany. The zoo tried for 40 years in vain to breed a wombat, until APARI was born as the first one last week. (Photo by Martin Meissner/AP Photo)

A dead green sea turtle is collected from the beach at the Khor Kalba Conservation Reserve, in the city of Kalba, on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, February 1, 2022. A staggering 75% of all dead green turtles and 57% of all loggerhead turtles in Sharjah had eaten marine debris, including plastic bags, bottle caps, rope and fishing nets, a new study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin. The study seeks to document the damage and danger of the throwaway plastic that has surged in use around the world and in the UAE, along with other marine debris. (Photo by Kamran Jebreili/AP Photo)

Murad Khydyrov, horse and monkey trainer at the Great Moscow State Circus, and chimpanzee named Micky get ready for a rehearsal of the show called “History” as the circus prepares for its new season, which is to begin on September 19, in Moscow on September 17, 2020. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP Photo)

Indian girls apply colored powder on each other as they wear protective masks as a precautionary measure against coronavirus, during Holi festival celebrations in Bhopal, India, 26 March 2021. Holi marks the beginning of the spring season. Holi will be celebrated as the Hindu spring festival of colors across the country on 29 March. (Photo by Sanjeev Gupta/EPA/EFE)

Picture dated March 28th 2022 shows a Typhoon training over Lincolnshire as it prepares for this years airshows. The Typhoon jet took part in a number of air shows across the UK last year. Out of season it is used for operational sorties. (Photo by Claire Hartley/Bav Media)

Moichara or Bull race is a rural festival where a pair of bulls race each other during the monsoon season. This race is performed by a farmer in Parganas, India on July 4, 2021. (Photo by Sumit Sanyal/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)