Tufted capuchin (Sapajus apella) receives a special red envelope containing delicious food to celebrate Chinese New Year at the Chongqing Zoo on January 28, 2025 in Chongqing, China. (Photo by Wang Chengjie/VCG via Getty Images)

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)

Miners pulling up lazy tourists to the rim of Kawah Ijen (Ijen Volcano), East Java, Indonesia on September 21, 2017. They will earn as much as they would bring down a load of sulfur. Nomadic Explorer, Cultural Lifestyle Photographer Claudio Sieber captured striking images of miners working at Ijen volcanic range in East Java, Indonesia. The sulphur miners risk their lives daily as they climb the active volcano carrying heavy loads, which they sell to sugar refineries. (Photo by Claudio Sieber/Barcroft Images)

Four orphan barn owl chicks were found weak from hunger and thirst after their mother's death, are under treatment at the Dicle Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center before being released back into their natural habitat on September 23, 2025, in Diyarbakir, Turkiye. (Photo by Bestami Bodruk/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Weddell seal numbers in 2025 have declined sharply on Signy Island, part of the South Orkney Islands in the Southern Ocean, where British Antarctic Survey researchers have tracked seal populations for nearly 50 years to understand the impact of melting sea ice. (Photo by Michael Dunn/The Times)

It doesn’t make for the most flattering photoshoot, but there is a reason these zebras at Lewa wildlife conservancy in Kenya in the second decade of August 2025 are stood head to tail: they use their tails to swat flies from each others’ faces. (Photo by Andrew Campbell/Solent News & Photo Agency)

The battle by Jose Garcia, US. Category: bird behaviour. A great white heron (Ardea herodias occidentalis) fighting a green snake in the Florida Everglades. The fight lasted for nearly 20 minutes with the heron having to release its prey. (Photo by Jose Garcia/2017 Bird Photographer of the Year Awards)

A female jaguar named Ti, by the NGO Jaguar ID, bites an alligator at Encontro das Aguas State Park, in the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world, in Pocone, Mato Grosso, Brazil, on October 10, 2024. (Photo by Sergio Moraes/Reuters)