Dancers perform during the carnival in Encarnacion, Paraguay on February 26, 2017. Encarnacion is located 375 km south of Asuncion, describes itself as the “Carnival Capital of Paraguay”. (Photo by Norberto Duarte/AFP Photo)

First place, The Beauty of Plants. “There are many stages of lotus growth on display at the Aquatic Gardens, but to come across twotwisted dancing stems of nelumbo nucifera was unexpected and quite magical”. (Photo by Kathleen Furey/The Guardian)

Visitors are seen with giraffes on a bus at Safari Park in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand, January 19, 2020. Kanchanaburi in western Thailand an area known for its waterfalls and caves. (Photo by Rachen Sageamsak/Xinhua News Agency/Eyevine)

Guardian of the Mangroves – Overall Winner. Tanya Houppermans, Cuba. A curious American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) swims right up to Tanya, at Gardens of the Queen (Jardines De La Reina), an archipelago off the coast of Cuba. It has been strictly protected since 1996, and is one of the most untouched marine ecosystems in the world. ‍ “The healthy population of American crocodiles is down to the pristine condition of the mangroves and I wanted to capture close ups of this gentle giant in its natural habitat. I hope this image can illustrate that protecting areas like this is so critical”. (Photo by Tanya Griffin Houppermans/Mangrove Photographer of the Year)

Since 2003, photographer Sergey Fomin has been shooting Russia’s most attractive natural, historical, and architectural objects from different aircrafts. Photo: “An Explosive Scene”. The 1,486-meter-high Karymskii Volcano in Kamchatka. (Photo by Sergey Fomin)

Aeronautics and Space engineer at France's Compagnie Maritime d'Expertises, or Comex, Arnaud Prost (C) meets with a jogger as he tests on the ground the “Gandolfi 2” underwater training suit for spacewalk, on January 20, 2016 in the calanques region (rocky inlets) of Marseille. The underwater training suit “Gandolfi 2”, developed with the European Space Agency (ESA), is designed for training astronauts underwater to simulate space gravity for the astronaut's extravehicular activities (EVAs). (Photo by Boris Horvat/AFP Photo)

A volunteer feeds a swift chick after it was found on the ground during a heatwave and given to the Centre Ornithologique de Readaptation in Genthod near Geneva, Switzerland on July 25, 2023. (Photo by Denis Balibouse/Reuters)