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)

A hyena stands chained to its handler at a circus in Gabasawa, Kano State, Nigeria, July 27, 2021. Hyenas are often viewed as repulsive and sinister, partly due to their scavenging habits in the wild, but in northern Nigeria some men keep the creatures in their homes, display them at festivals and even use their dung to make remedies. (Photo by Afolabi Sotunde/Reuters)

The sun streaks through the fall foliage at sunrise along the Potomac River in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, November 4, 2015 on a warm fall day in the nation's Capitol area. (Photo by J. David Ake/AP Photo)

A ghost glass frog in the Chocó rainforest, Ecuador in November 2020. The marbled swirling “hypnotising” eyes are thought to be helpful in attracting a mate. (Photo by David Weiller/WENN)

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)

Team members pose during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, on August 8, 2021 at the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Reuters)

A radiation monitor indicates 114.00 microsieverts per hour near the building housing the plant's No. 4 reactor, center, and an under construction foundation, right, which will store the reactor's melted fuel rods at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s tsunami-crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, ahead of the second anniversary of the March 11, 2011 tsunami and earthquake. Some 110,000 people living around the nuclear plant were evacuated after the massive March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami knocked out the plant's power and cooling systems, causing meltdowns in three reactors and spewing radiation into the surrounding air, soil and water. (Photo by Issei Kato/AP Photo/Pool)

A resident reacts as a health worker collects a swab sample to test for the Covid-19 coronavirus in Colombo on July 27, 2021. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)