They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these striking images of 2017 are no exception. The photo highlights include incredible snapshots of the natural world as well as some awesome animal and human encounters. The vibrant gallery also shows thrill-seekers pushing themselves to the limit with breathtaking stunts captured in perfect clarity. The pictures have been taken by a host of photographers from around the world. Here: The two lion cubs singing their hearts out at Antelope park in Zimbabwe. (Photo by David Jenkins/Caters News Agency)

As the world marks International Women's Day on Wednesday, whose theme this year focuses on “women in the changing world of work”, the Israeli military says it is ahead of the curve in providing combat roles for female soldiers. Here: A female Israeli soldier from the Haraam artillery battalion fixes her hair in the women's living quarters at a military base in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights March 1, 2017. (Photo by Nir Elias/Reuters)

Revelers dance and shout as they listen to music, in front of the main stage, during the 21st Woodstock Festival in Kostrzyn-upon-Odra, Poland July 31, 2015. An estimated 200,000 people attended the ongoing festival, a brainchild of Polish journalist and social campaigner Jerzy Owsiak, on Friday. Owsiak initiated the event to say thank you to those who donated money to his GOCC charity organisation that delivers medical care for children. (Photo by Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

A dead wild boar is seen during a hunt in Castell'Azzara, Tuscany, central Italy, October 23, 2015. Extinct across much of the country by the end of the 1800s, the number of wild boar in Italy has almost doubled over the past decade and there are now about a million roaming the country, environmental and agricultural associations say. (Photo by Max Rossi/Reuters)

When he's driving, New York-based painter Gregory Thielker takes in the views that change from moment to moment: the road, the sky, other cars. “Inside the car it's easy to forget the outside temperature, humidity, the noise of the road”, he says. “But something happens when rain interrupts the view: the lens through which we are seeing is revealed. Water both obscures and highlights the landscape”. Gregory Thielker's exhibition “Between here and now” will be at Castor Gallery in lower Manhattan from early March. Here: “Complete Stop”. (Painting by Gregory Thielker)

In this March, 2015 photo, a person sits at an upright piano that had been hauled up to Topanga Lookout in the Santa Monica Mountains in Calabasas, Calif. For a couple of days last week, a Southern California hilltop was alive with the sound of mystery. Hikers venturing to Topanga Lookout found a battered upright piano sitting on a graffiti-scrawled concrete slab with a panoramic view over the mountains between Calabasas and the Pacific Ocean. Turns out, the piano was used for a music video by Seattle-based artist Rachel Wong. The cinematographer, Michael Flotron, says he and four others used a dolly and rope to haul the 350-pound instrument a mile up the trail on Tuesday. After the shoot, it was too dark to get the piano back down. Flotron says people seem happy to leave it there. But if necessary, he'll haul the piano back down. (Photo by Michael Flotron/AP Photo)

Behaviour: Mammals category. Giant Gathering by Tony Wu, USA. Dozens of sperm whales mingled noisily off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast, stacked as far down as Tony could see. This was a congregation of dozens of social units, like a gathering of the clans. Aggregations like this could be a critical part of the whales’ rich social lives but are rarely reported. Some two thirds of the population was wiped out before commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This kind of major gathering could be “a sign that populations are recovering”, says Tony. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017)

Camp dwellers pump water from a well at Malkohi refugee camp in Jimeta, Adamawa State, Nigeria on February 19, 2019, four days ahead of the country's General elections set for February 23 after a last-minute rescheduling. Malkohi is a camp for internal displaced who fled their homes as Boko Haram insurgents advanced across north-eastern Nigeria. From their homes on the outskirts of Yola, capital of presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar's home state Adamawa, Malkohi residents say they feel forgotten. (Photo by Luis Tato/AFP Photo)