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)

Mailin Gobbo reacts as she leaves the courtroom after hearing a judge acquit former Catholic Priest Carlos Eduardo Jose, who she says sexually abused her for years when she was an adolescent, in San Martin, Argentina, Tuesday, March 9, 2021. The court acquitted the 62-year-old, citing the statute of limitations had run out. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

A woman from the Pataxo tribe poses for a photo at an indigenous protest camp on the fourth day of the Terra Livre Indigenous Camp in Brasilia on April 7, 2022. The 10-day annual protest is held by indigenous people from tribes that arrive from all over Brazil, and calls for greater protection of their land and rights. (Photo by Carl de Souza/AFP Photo)

Yakut artists present a performance based on the national Yakut epic “Olonkho” on the stage of the Kyrgyz Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, 24 April 2024. The State Opera and Ballet Theater of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is on tour in Bishkek on April 24 and 26. (Photo by Igor Kovalenko/EPA/EFE)

A man uses iron sheet to make noises, as a way of trying to disperse desert locusts that had invaded their farms during the second wave invasion in Kakongo village, in Nuu-Mwingi East, in Kitui, Kenya, 06 February 2021. The second wave invasion of the desert locusts in the country comes at a time where most famers are expecting to harvest their farm produce in the country. (Photo by Daniel Irungu/EPA/EFE)

Goose, a nine-month-old cat, sits in a backpack as people gather during a Speak Out Against Sexual Violence demonstration at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, U.S., March 28, 2021. (Photo by Emily Elconin/Reuters)

A ranger watches a seal pup near the Northumberland coast, Farne Islands, UK on December 19, 2018, where the National Trust says the number of Atlantic grey seal pups has reached a record high thanks to an abundance of food and a lack of predators. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA Wire Press Association)

Stefan Sigmund, 29, from the Transylvanian city of Cluj, attempt to smoke 800 cigarettes through a self designed device in less than five minutes, in central Bucharest Tuesday, January 30, 1996, trying to enter the Guinness Book of Records. It is the last of his several attempts entering the record book which included eating 29 hard boiled eggs in four minutes and leaping into a lake from a height of 41 meters (135 feet) even if the Guinness Book of Records no longer rewards self damaging attempts. (Photo by AP Photo/Stringer)