Clearing skies await a tripod-toting photographer looking for a spot to capture the early-morning light at Portland Head Light, Thursday, January 17, 2013, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. (Photo by Robert F. Bukaty/AP Photo)

Soma-Nomaoi is a festival that recreates a battle scene from more than 1,000 years ago. It is annually held for 4 days from July 22 to 25 in Haramachi City, Fukushima Prefecture, in the eastern part of Japan. In this historical event, 600 mounted samurai in traditional Japanese armor, with long swords at their side and ancestral flagstaffs streaming from their backs, ride across open fields. Soma-Nomaoi has been designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property.

Photo: A young woman (C) clad in samurai costume leads other local poeple as she rides her horse during a parade at the annual Soma Nomaoi festival in Minamisoma, Fukushima Prefecture, on July 28, 2012. The traditional full-scale festival kicked off for the first time after the accident of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant following the massive earthquake and the tsunami on March 11, 2011. (Photo by Toru Yamanaka/AFP Photo)

These poignant portraits look to shine awareness on the plight of some of the world’s most endangered ecosystems and species of wildlife. The images combine animals, art and celebrity, with Asia's top models posing with the likes of rhinos, giraffes, leopards and marine life. Here: Mikki Yao with an Asian Elephant. (Photo by Sean Lee-Davies/Caters News)

This undated photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows two island foxes in Channel Islands National Park, Calif. Three fox subspecies native to California's Channel Islands were removed from the list of endangered species Thursday, August 11, 2016, in what federal officials have called the fastest recovery of any mammal listed under the Endangered Species Act. (Photo by Chuck Graham/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP Photo)

A common kingfisher sits on a branch of a tree after catching an insect in Allahabad, India, Sunday, July 9, 2017. The common kingfisher is a highly territorial bird that has to eat nearly sixty percent of its bodyweight every day. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

An iguana in Bali helped Julij Kopilović, age eight, from Slovenia, earn second runner-up in Amazing Animals. (Photo by Julij Kopilović/National Geographic)

In this photo taken on Saturday, January 26, 2019 photo, rescued flamingo chicks have access to water at a centre after being rescued from a dried out dam in Kimberley, South Africa. A special airlift for thousands of baby flamingos is under way in South Africa as drought has put their breeding ground in peril. A reservoir that hosts one of southern Africa's largest flamingo populations is drying up. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)