Pangolins in Crisis: Brent Stirton, South Africa; 1st place, Natural world and wildlife. “Pangolins are the world’s most illegally trafficked mammals, with an estimated one million trafficked to Asia in the last 10 years. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and their meat is sold as a high-priced delicacy. As a result, pangolins are listed as critically endangered and anyone who trades or consumes them is breaking the law. This body of work exposes the trade, while exploring aspects of illegality and celebrating the people who are trying to save these animals”. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Sony World Photography Awards 2020)

A man and a woman jump over a bonfire during Ivan Kupala Day celebrations held by the Belarusian State Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Lifestyle in the village of Ozertso near Minsk, Belarus on July 4, 2020. Ivan Kupala Day, also known as Ivana-Kupala or Kupala Night, is a traditional pagan holiday celebrated in eastern Slavic cultures. Various rituals are traditionally performed on Kupala Night, including making flower wreaths, fortune-telling, jumping over bonfires, and burning a wheel-like effigy symbolizing the sun. (Photo by Natalia Fedosenko/TASS)

A boy with his bike is seen as rainbow appears after a rainfall in Edremit district of Van province in Turkey on July 08, 2020. (Photo by Ozkan Bilgin/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Caesar McCool, a therapy llama nicknamed the “No Drama Llama” and his handler Larry McCool greet a driver in a McLaren at the site of ongoing protests against police violence and racial inequality, in Portland, Oregon, U.S., August 6, 2020. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Reuters)

A killdeer (Charadrius vociferus) chick on sand dunes in Pacific Grove, California, US on June 21, 2023. The killdeer gets its name from its shrill, loud call. (Photo by Rory Merry/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Men skin slaughtered sheep on the first day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday in Wad Hamid, about 100 kilometres north of Sudan's capital, on June 28, 2023. (Photo by AFP Photo/Stringer)

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket breaks the sound barrier as it launches the next batch of Starlink satellites (mission; Starlink 6-7), at 12:01 AM from Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida on Friday, July 28, 2023. (Photo by Joe Marino/UPI/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Mexican training ship “Cuauhtemoc” moves past the Galata Tower in Istanbul, Turkiye on July 18, 2023. “Cuauhtemoc”, which was sent by the Mexican government as a sign of friendship between the two countries on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Turkiye, arrived at Sarayburnu Port. (Photo by Omer Faruk Yildiz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)