An Asian elephant cools off at the zoo during the World Elephant Day in Lodz, central Poland, 12 August 2022. The World Elephant Day is observed every year on August 12. (Photo by Grzegorz Michalowski/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Shooting star by Tony Wu, US/Japan. Winner, underwater. The electrifying reproductive dance of a giant sea star. As the surrounding water filled with sperm and eggs from spawning sea stars, Wu faced several challenges. Stuck in a small, enclosed bay with only a macro lens for photographing small subjects, he backed up to squeeze the undulating sea star into his field of view. The dancing posture of spawning sea stars rising and swaying may help release eggs and sperm, or may help sweep the eggs and sperm into the currents where they fertilise together in the water. Kinko Bay, Japan. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A bodybuilder applies tan on another participant during the Mr and Mrs East Africa Natural Body Building Contest at Rupaz Gym in Eldoret, western Kenya, on October 8, 2022. 168 bodybuilders from Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Kenia participate in this competition in Eldoret, a city known as “The City of Champions” for producing some of the best long distance runners in the world, that has not hosted a bodybuilding event since 2015. (Photo by Patrick Meinhardt/AFP Photo)

A model practices her walk ahead of Dakar fashion week on Goree Island in Dakar, Senegal, on December 03, 2022. The 20th anniversary of Dakar fashion week is held in a preserved colonial era fort on Goree island, which was one of Africas biggest slave trading centres during the 15th and 16th century. (Photo by John Wessels/AFP Photo)

A black-winged stilt patrols a reservoir in Jezreel Valley in Israel early April 2023. Their eggs are a golden colour mottled with brown. (Photo by Itamar Procaccia/Solent News)

Escorts of city prince Stefan I on their way to the key transfer for carnival in Maastricht, Netherlands on February 18, 2023. City prince Stefan I symbolically gains power over the city for three days. (Photo by Hollandse Hoogte/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Pedestrians use their smartphones to capture the newly illuminated Christmas tree at the Syntagma square in Athens on November 23, 2023. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP Photo)

Iraqi Kurdish women work at a hand-weaving Kurdish traditional carpet shop, in the district of Raniya, about 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region, on February 11, 2025. (Photo by Safin Hamid/AFP Photo)