The shortlist for the coveted Bird Photographer of the Year awards has been announced by Nature Photographers and the British Trust for Ornithology. Here: Red-billed oxpecker on an impala, Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by Edmund Aylmer/BPOTY/Cover Images/The Guardian)

Participants race during the Red Bull Box Cart Race challenges in Bo Kaap, one of the iconic neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa on November 6, 2022. (Photo by Esa Alexander/Reuters)

A giraffe quenches its thirst at a watering hole at Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa in the second decade of December 2023. (Photo by Janette Hill/Animal News Agency)

A young baboon receives an earful from an adult as another primate yanks its tail at Kruger National Park, South Africa in the first decade of July 2024. (Photo by John Mullineux/Solent News)

A meerkat stands guard as her pups cuddle at Mountain Zebra National Park, South Africa early November 2025. (Photo by Nadine Leonard/Two Point O Media)

A close up of a caracal lynx's face looking into a camera on January 2014 in Western Cape, South Africa. (Photo by Dale Morris/Barcroft Media)

A model waits backstage before participating in AFI Joburg Fashion Week show with the theme #AfroAsia, in Johannesburg, South Africa October 4, 2018. Picture taken October 4, 2018. (Photo by Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)

A person poses on the track during a fashion competition at the Durban July horse racing event in Durban, South Africa July 1, 2017. (Photo by Rogan Ward/Reuters)