The shortlist for the coveted Bird Photographer of the Year awards has been announced by Nature Photographers and the British Trust for Ornithology. Here: Red-billed oxpecker on an impala, Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by Edmund Aylmer/BPOTY/Cover Images/The Guardian)

Participants race during the Red Bull Box Cart Race challenges in Bo Kaap, one of the iconic neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa on November 6, 2022. (Photo by Esa Alexander/Reuters)

A giraffe quenches its thirst at a watering hole at Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa in the second decade of December 2023. (Photo by Janette Hill/Animal News Agency)

In this Wednesday, August 20, 2014 photo released by Red Bull, Maikel Melero of Spain warms up prior to the fifth stage of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour in the South African savanna of Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Joerg Mitter/AP Photo/Red Bull)

A person poses on the track during a fashion competition at the Durban July horse racing event in Durban, South Africa July 1, 2017. (Photo by Rogan Ward/Reuters)

A model waits backstage before participating in AFI Joburg Fashion Week show with the theme #AfroAsia, in Johannesburg, South Africa October 4, 2018. Picture taken October 4, 2018. (Photo by Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters)

A giraffe appears almost to be doing the splits as it bends to drink at a watering hole on a reserve in Mkuze, South Africa in September 2023. (Photo by Peter Batty/Solent News)

Cape fox cubs play fight in the last decade of May 2025 in the Kalahari Desert, South Africa, their silver and yellow fur camouflaging them in the desert. (Photo by John Mullineux/Solent News & Photo Agency)