These otherworldly images give a rare glimpse inside caves barely ever seen by the human eye. With its peculiar pools of water and strange colored sediments, the bizarre looking tunnels of the Shakuranskaya cave could be a set straight out of a science fiction film. Found in the disputed region of Abkhazia, around 75 miles outside of Sochi, Russia, it is rumored the incredible underground chambers were formed after a huge earthquake struck the area in 1892. After causing part of a nearby mountain to collapse into the Amtkel River, it is thought the dam-like affect has created a series of interconnecting underground tunnels. Here: a large pool of water inside one of the tunnels. (Photo by Vladimir Mulde/Caters News)

Youth category winner: Symphony No 5 by Giacomo Redaelli (Italy). (Photo by Giacomo Redaelli/2019 Nature Photographer of the Year)

Spectators dressed as leprechauns attend St Patrick's Day parade in Dublin on March 17, 2014. (Photo by Peter Muhly/AFP Photo)

The Grevy’s Illusion by Yaron Schmid, USA: a Grevy’s zebra staring at the camera in Lewa, Kenya. Third place – wildlife. (Photo by Yaron Schmid/The Nature Conservancy Global Photo Contest 2019)

Models display an Autumn-Winter 2021/2022 collection creation by Andres Sarda lingerie brand during a fashion parade on the opening day of 73th Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid, at IFEMA Convention and Exhibition Center, in Madrid, Spain, 08 April 2021. (Photo by Mariscal/EPA/EFE)

Kim Bui of Germany competes in the Women's Uneven Bars Final during the Artistic Gymnastics competition on day 4 of the European Championships Munich 2022 at Olympiapark on August 14, 2022 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters)

A man shaves blocks of salt from the Danakil Depression on 28 March 2017, in Afar, Ethiopia. Every morning, hundreds of men converge on a dry lakebed in a remote corner of Ethiopia, where they cleave the ground open with handaxes to extract salt, just as their fathers and grandfathers once did. (Photo by Zacharias Abubeker/AFP Photo)

The Wildscreen festival is the world’s biggest celebration of screen-based natural history storytelling which takes place every two years in Bristol. Here: “Walrus in Midnight Sun”. Walrus feed mostly on bivalves in productive, shallow and often sandy habitats in the Arctic. This individual, though, arrived on a beach outside Tromsø, northern Norway, and found comfort on a stranded dead sperm whale. After two weeks he approached Audun, and only half a metre away he stretched his tusk forward and touched his hand gently. “This was one of the most memorable moments of my life”, Rikardsen says. He named the 500kg male Buddy. After two months, the dead whale was decomposed and Buddy suddenly disappeared. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Wildscreen 2016)