A visitor carries a cat wearing sunglasses during the Malaysia's Pet Exhibition in Kuala Lumpur on June 23, 2023. (Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFP Photo)

A dog wears fake eyes while riding a motorcycle in Samut Sakhon, Thailand June 23, 2016. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Dancers wearing traditional attires take part in the 7th Annual Ingoma Dance Competition organised by The Natal Playhouse theatre in Durban on March 21, 2017. The Ingoma Dance is considered one of the most purist forms of traditional Zulu dance. (Photo by Rajesh Jantilal/AFP Photo)

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)

A young rednose dwarf chameleon (Kinyongia oxyrhina) perches on a zookeeper’s thumb at the Tiergarten Schönbrunn in Vienna on September 12, 2023. The chameleons were found by customs officers in a suitcase in 2021, and have bred at the zoo. (Photo by Daniel Zupanc/Newsflash)

An injured protestor is led away during clashes with police near Tahrir Square on November 23, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt. Thousands of Egyptians are continuing to occupy Tahrir Square after four days of clashes with security forces despite a promise from military leaders to bring forward Presidential elections. (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Li Yuming, a local farmer who is interested in scientific invention, works on his unfinished miniature submarine “Xiaguang V” on the outskirts of Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei province August 24, 2007. “Xiaguang V”, which is 3-metre long, 1.2-metre in height, has a maximum diving depth of 20 metres, and can hold two adults and one child at the same time. The submarine will be used for tour after safety test, local media said. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Aurorae category runner-up: Lone Tree under a Scandinavian Aurora by Tom Archer (UK). The photographer decided to explore the area around the hotel on a very crisp -35C evening in Finnish Lapland. When he found this tree, he decided to wait for the misty conditions to change and could not believe his luck when the sky cleared and the aurora came out in the perfect spot. Archer spent about an hour photographing it before his camera started to lock up because of the harsh conditions, but by then he was happy to call it a night. (Photo by Tom Archer/2020 Astronomy Photographer of the Year)