Eight year-old Maya Mohammad Ali Merhi walks using prosthetic legs made by her father from tin cans in a camp for displaced people, in the northern Syrian province of Idlib on June 20, 2018. Maya and her father were both born without lower limbs. Unable to afford real prosthetic limbs, her father made her a pair out of tin cans filled with cotton and scrap pieces of cloth. Maya's family had to leave their home in the Aleppo province to flee battles. (Photo by Aaref Watad/AFP Photo)

Bloodthirsty by Thomas P. Peschak, Germany/South Africa — winner, Behaviour: birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds. The finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up, so they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave their nests the boobies tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

People walk in a field of California poppies and other wildflowers outside of the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, after recent rains moved the region's second-driest winter on record up to its seventh-driest, near Lancaster, California, on April 2, 2022. The California Department of Water Resources reported that about one-third of the Sierra Nevada snowpack's water equivalency melted last week under higher-than-normal temperatures, leaving the statewide snow-water equivalent at 38% of normal for the date. (Photo by David Mcnew/AFP Photo)

A California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer detains a protestor while clearing a pro-Palestinian encampment after dispersal orders were given at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, on May 2, 2024 in Los Angeles, California. The camp was declared ‘unlawful’ by the university and over 100 protestors who refused to leave were detained during the operation. Pro-Palestinian encampments have sprung up at college campuses around the country with some protestors calling for schools to divest from Israeli interests amid the ongoing war in Gaza. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

The worst drought in 40 years has a cruel grip on Somalia. A struggling young government and militant violence have compounded to bring crisis to 6.7 million lives. The town of Baidoa is facing some of the harshest conditions. Surrounded by territory controlled by al-Shabaab militants and amid ongoing attacks, 160,000 people have had to leave their farms and are surviving in camps where hunger, thirst and cholera await them. (Photo by Peter Caton/Mercy Corps)

Waves triggered by Typhoon Hato are seen in Hong Kong, China on August 23, 2017. A powerful typhoon barreled into Hong Kong on Wednesday, forcing offices and schools to close and leaving flooded streets, shattered windows and hundreds of canceled flights in its wake. Typhoon Hato came within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of Hong Kong, close enough to be considered a direct hit under Hong Kong's storm warning system. It was headed toward the western side of mainland China's Pearl River Delta. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

These hilarious photos will leave people wedding themselves with laughter. The images – which include photobombs, wardrobe malfunctions and unexpected animal behaviour – have been released by the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographs (ISPWP). Each year the society holds quarterly competitions, celebrating a variety of the best image from couples special days. Other categories in the ISPWPs completions include the likes Getting Ready, First Dance, Family Love, and a selection of portrait possibilities. Here: Couples wedding photo photobombed by deer. (Photo by Hendra Lesmana/Caters News Agency/ISPWP)

“I’d come to the Altai Mountains on an Adventure Sherpas tour. Our group of 12 was made up mostly of Minnesotans who’d left warm weather and falling leaves for frosty Mongolia. We’d come to sleep in cozy ger tents, the traditional yurt abode of the Mongolian steppe; sip mare’s milk tea; climb mountain glaciers; ride horses to an ancient battle site, and attend the annual Eagle Hunting Festival in Ölgiy...”. – Kathryn Kysar via The Star Tribune. Here: hunter Berek and his eagle outside his home. (Photo by Brad Ruoho/The Star Tribune)