Fikiri Kiponda, left, and Wilson Saro, right, carry a green turtle that was unintentionally caught in a fisherman's net, before releasing it back into the Watamu National Marine Park on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya Wednesday, September 22, 2021. A former accountant, Kiponda and the Local Ocean Conservation group rescue sea turtles that have been caught in fishermen's nets, and then release them back into the marine park or treat injured ones at a rescue center until they are fit. (Photo by Brian Inganga/AP Photo)

Shortlisted: The Life: A narrow strip, Río Tinto, Huelva, Spain. A narrow strip of road divides ochre-coloured and fresh waters. Trees wait on the fresh side of the road opposite the toxic waters of a nearby mine reservoir. (Photo by Roberto Bueno/CIWEM Environmental Photographer of the Year 2021)

American rapper Saweetie performs at the European MTV Awards in Budapest, Hungary, Sunday, November 14, 2021. (Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP Photo)

A worker sprays disinfectant at Independence Square during a disinfection operation, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Kuala Lumpur on October 17, 2020. (Photo by Lim Huey Teng/Reuters)

Iraqi firefighters try to stop the fire of burning oil wells in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, 02 June 2016. Two Khabbaz oil field wells in Kirkuk Province, northern Iraq, exploded by suspected insurgents, a security official said. (Photo by EPA/Stringer)

Bloodthirsty by Thomas P. Peschak, Germany/South Africa — winner, Behaviour: birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds. The finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up, so they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave their nests the boobies tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Sun Rongchun, 57, exercises with an improvised cervical traction device attached to a high bar at a sports complex in Shenyang, Liaoning province, China on April 9, 2019. (Photo by Sheng Li/Reuters)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)