In this July 11, 2016 photo, a young, masked drug trafficker poses for photos holding his guns at a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Teenagers openly tote guns while they work as guards, lookouts and distributors for drug lords operating just a few miles from where hundreds of thousands and tourists and athletes will be for the Aug. 5-21 Olympic Games. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games taekwondo bronze medallist Palesha Goverdhan greets the crowd upon her arrival at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on September 4, 2024. Nepal celebrated on September 4 winning its first-ever Olympic medal, with cheering crowds giving Paralympic taekwondo star Palesha Goverdhan a hero's welcome as she returned home. (Photo by Prakash Mathema/AFP Photo)

Folk artists perform fire dragon dances on a stage on March 11, 2023 in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

In this image released on February 5th – Models walk the runway at the Cihan Nacar show on February 04, 2021 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Ferhat Zupcevic/Getty Images for Cihan Nacar)

Mortuary workers walk past a Christmas tree as they remove the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 from a nursing home in downtown Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, December 23, 2020. (Photo by Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo)

Vice President of Lebanese Wildlife Alexandra Youssef, checks a fox at a vet clinic in Beit Mery, Lebanon on March 26, 2021. (Photo by Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)

Nefertara, a supporter of pop star Britney Spears, wears an outfit inspired by the singer as she holds a picture of Britney that she painted, during a gathering on the day of a conservatorship case hearing at Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Los Angeles, California, U.S., September 29, 2021. (Photo by Mario Anzuoni/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)