Michael Olivant, a Times reader, saw a chance to contribute when a Dalmatian pelican landed on his wife’s head at Lake Kerkini in northern Greece in the first decade of February 2025. (Photo by Michael Olivant/The Times)

A hyena cub got a mouthful from his mum after it appears he got a right telling off. Michael Raddall, a animal enthusiast and wildlife photographer from South Africa, snapped the mum and cub at the Timbavati game reserve in South Africa while on safari at the Umlani Bush camp. (Photo by Michael Raddall/Caters News Agency)

Michael Pankratz’s intriguing works focus specifically on the feet of tarantulas – an appendage that many have perhaps never focused on. The extreme close-ups of tarantulas’ “paws” show fine, colourful hairs, and sharp claws. Here: Brachypelma albopilosum, foot detail. (Photo by Michael Pankratz/Caters News Agency)

Michael O’Neill won a prize in animal portraits with fry of a peacock bass hovering around their mother for protection against predators in South Florida. (Photo by Michael Patrick O'Neill/2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)

A little girl takes a picture of a lion in the zoo in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, September 13, 2016. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A woman crosses the street on a foggy morning in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, October 29, 2021. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

A man runs on a small road in the outskirts of Frankfurt, Germany, before sunrise on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)

Commuters by with the buildings of the banking district in background in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, February 6, 2020. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)