A golden huddle by Minqiang Lu, China. Two females and a male golden snub-nosed monkey huddle together to keep warm in the extreme cold. Threatened by forest loss and fragmentation, this endangered species is confined to central China. Restricted to living high up in the temperate forests, these monkeys – here in the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi province – feed mostly in the trees, on leaves, bark, buds and lichen. In heavy wind and snow, Minqiang walked up the mountain carrying his equipment. He stayed for half an hour in temperatures of –10C opposite the tree where the group was huddled before achieving this eye-level composition. (Photo by Minqiang Lu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Birds behaviour winner: Land of the Eagle by Audun Rikardsen, Norway. High on a ledge, on the coast near his home in northern Norway, Rikardsen carefully positioned an old tree branch that he hoped would make a perfect golden eagle lookout. To this, he bolted a tripod head with a camera, flashes and motion sensor attached, and built himself a hide a short distance away. From time to time, he left road‑kill carrion nearby. Very gradually – over the next three years – a golden eagle got used to the camera and started to use the branch regularly to survey the coast below. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

“The fantastic landscape of Bagan in Myanmar features hundreds of temples and pagodas as far as the eye can see. Experiencing this sight at dawn from the basket of a hot air balloon will remain engraved in my memory for ever. Mick Ryan, judge – What a magical photograph and place. The Buddhist temples and pagodas fill the plains of Bagan in Myanmar at sunrise… the golden hour providing beautiful light to illuminate the retrogression of the temples and balloons toward a misty, mountainous distance. An excellent, exotic photograph that makes you want to book a flight”. (Photo by Alastair Swan/The Guardian)

A Chinese woman poses for a photo in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic that was created with other floral decorations in advance of the country's national holidays, also known as Golden week on September 28, 2020 in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st.(Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

A wild golden jackals (Canis aureus) mother and her cub entered a house for food at noon. The baby was curiously sniffing all things beside him trying to enter the room of the house and her mother immediately roared and warned her. This photo was taken ahead of the International Day for Biological Diversity 2022 at Tehatta, West Bengal, India on May 21, 2022. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

The ex-Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger climbed 1,000-plus steps of an old Honolulu railway line in Hawaii in the first decade of January 2023. (Photo by Instagram)

Sunrise over a moor viewed from Littaford Tor, Dartmoor, UK, 2016. Autumn visits the windswept moors and granite tors of Dartmoor earlier than the rest of the south-west. While there aren’t many trees here, autumn shades appear in golden ferns and tan heather. Littaford Tors, near Two Bridges and a mile from Princetown, is a short walk and can be combined with a visit to the adjacent Wistman’s Wood. (Photo by Stuart Holmes)

Azat Shajbyrov reacts with a baby falcon on his head in a village of Bokonbaevo, Issyk-Kul area (270 km from Bishkek), Kyrgyzstan, 22 June 2016, as he dreams of continuing a family tradition of golden eagle hunting. Eagle and falcon hunting is an old Kyrgyz tradition. With their birds, Kyrgyz berkutchy hunt in the mountains and participate in the hunting festival “Salburun”. (Photo by Igor Kovalenko/EPA)