Guardian of the Mangroves – Overall Winner. Tanya Houppermans, Cuba. A curious American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) swims right up to Tanya, at Gardens of the Queen (Jardines De La Reina), an archipelago off the coast of Cuba. It has been strictly protected since 1996, and is one of the most untouched marine ecosystems in the world. ‍ “The healthy population of American crocodiles is down to the pristine condition of the mangroves and I wanted to capture close ups of this gentle giant in its natural habitat. I hope this image can illustrate that protecting areas like this is so critical”. (Photo by Tanya Griffin Houppermans/Mangrove Photographer of the Year)

Aina the mother sheep, a 4.5-metre musical sculpture installed in the first decade of July 2023 outside Huddersfield railway station in England as part of Artichoke’s latest project, Herd. She is one of 23 giant handcrafted musical sheep that will appear all over Kirklees this week before joining Aina for a grand finale in Huddersfield on 16 July. (Photo by Christopher Thomond/The Guardian)

A woman holds her dog to be blessed by a priest at the Cathedral San Bernardino de Siena during the ceremony commemorating the Feast of San Antonio Abad, the patron saint of domestic animals, in Xochimilco on the outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico on January 17, 2024. (Photo by Raquel Cunha/Reuters)

It would seem to be something you'd see only in a cartoon or at a Phish concert, but according to park rangers in New South Wales, Australia, dozens of giant, fluorescent pink slugs have been popping up on a mountaintop there. The eight-inch creatures have been spotted only on Mount Kaputar, a 5,000-foot peak in the Nandewar Range in northern New South Wales. Scientists believe the eye-catching organisms are survivors from an era when Australia was home to rainforests. A series of volcanoes, millions of years of erosion and other geological changes “have carved a dramatic landscape at Mount Kaputar”, the park service wrote on its Facebook page, and unique arid conditions spared the slugs from extinction. (Photo by Michael Murphy/AFP Photo/NSW Environment Office)

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station 3 February 2015 during her Futura mission. Samantha is living and working on the Station as part of the Expedition 42 crew. Picture released on February 10, 2015. (Photo by ESA/NASA)

A man flies a kite made of 110 Tukkal or paper lanterns for the Hindu festival of “Makar Sankranti”, which marks the start of spring, in Ahmedabad January 13, 2011. (Photo by Amit Dave/Reuters)

Visitors walk past sculptures on display as part of the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney on October 29, 2019. Sculpture by the Sea is the world's largest annual, free-to-the-public, outdoor sculpture exhibition. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP Photo)

A burning tree is seen during a fire in an area of the Amazon rainforest in Itapua do Oeste, Rondonia State, Brazil, September 11, 2019. (Photo by Bruno Kelly/Reuters)