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)

Tourists ride in inflatable boats as they go rafting down a river at Buyun Mountain Scenic Spot on July 10, 2020 in Dalian, Liaoning Province of China. (Photo by Wang Hua/VCG via Getty Images)

Reverend Peter Wall blesses a hamster during “The Blessing of Animals” at St. James Cathedral in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on September 30, 2023. (Photo by Mert Alper Dervis/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A vendor works on a Christmas star lantern, locally known as parol, at a street market in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines on November 29, 2023. (Photo by Eloisa Lopez/Reuters)

A girl holds her hedgehog to be blessed by a priest at the Cathedral San Bernardino de Siena during the ceremony commemorating the Feast of San Antonio Abad, the patron saint of domestic animals, in Xochimilco on the outskirts of Mexico City, Mexico on January 17, 2024. (Photo by Raquel Cunha/Reuters)

While many of us would pay good money for a spa mud bath, these fortunate hippos in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, have nature to thank as they take a plunge in a lagoon in the second decade of February 2024. (Photo by Dimitar Nedelchev/Solent News)

A curious trio of owl monkeys peep out of a tree hollow on the Marañón River near the city of Nauta, Peru in April 2024. (Photo by James Cai/Solent News)

A spoonbill appears to creep across the sky as it comes in to land on a nearby branch in the Orlando Wetlands, Florida in the second decade of June 2024. (Photo by Deborah Sandidge/Solent News)