A mountain jerboa, which is taken under protection after his mother dies, is seen at Yuzuncu Yil University Wild Animal Protection and Rehabilitation Center in Van, Turkiye on June 24, 2022. (Photo by Mesut Varol/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Hisao Mitani walks with an African tortoise, which he named Bon-Chan, on the street on September 16, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan. Bon-chan, the 26-year-old tortoise who is cared for by 69-year-old funeral director Mitani, has become an internet sensation after starring in a viral tiktok video that has gained over seven million views since it was released, making both Mitani and Bon-chan tiktok celebrities. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

Nose to Nose; Human/Nature winner. “Doug Gimesy was documenting work at the Joey and Bat Sanctuary near Melbourne when he met a wombat (Vombatus ursinus) whose mother had been killed by a car. Gimesy watched as a young veterinary student bottle-fed the orphaned joey, then touched her nose to the joey’s in a tender moment of interspecies bonding”. (Photo by Doug Gimesy/BigPicture)

The snow-capped Etna spews hot lava, near Catania, Sicily island, Italy, 26 November 2023. One of Europe's most active and tallest volcano has erupted again on 25 November 2023. (Photo by Dario Lo Scavo/EPA/EFE)

A couple poses for wedding photos in front of the Saigon Opera House in Ho Chi Minh City on December 7, 2023. (Photo by Nhac Nguyen/AFP Photo)

A skater observes pancakes snow on the frozen Lake des Rousses in Les Rousses, central-eastern France, on January 1, 2025. This phenomenon forms when slushy ice in water clumps into round, pancake-like shapes due to waves or currents. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP Photo)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)

Commuters hang off a local passenger train in the morning in Colombo, Sri Lanka September 8, 2016. (Photo by Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters)