A person tries to extinguish flames as sparks fly during a wild forest fire in Valparaiso, Chile, Sunday April 13, 2014. Authorities say the fires have destroyed hundreds of homes, forced the evacuation of thousands and claimed the lives of at least seven people. (Photo by Luis Hidalgo/AP Photo)

A red squirrel sniffs out nuts inside Christmas stockings as part of the festive celebrations and enrichment programme at Wildwood Escot Park in Ottery St Mary, Devon, United Kingdom on December 17, 2020. (Photo by Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

Bottlenose dolphins swim over visitors in water tank at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium-amusement park complex in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, Tuesday, July 21, 2015. Temperatures in Tokyo's metropolitan area neared around 96 degree Fahrenheit, or 35 degree Celsius, on Tuesday. (Photo by Shuji Kajiyama/AP Photo)

A worshipper prays during the Friday prayer at the Great Mosque in Ouagadougou, on January 28, 2022. Burkina Faso, the scene of a military coup on Monday, was suspended from the Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Friday, following a virtual summit of the organization whose heads of state will meet again on February 3 in Accra to reassess the situation in this country. (Photo by Olympia de Maismont/AFP Photo)

A ring-tailed lemur sunbakes at Melbourne Zoo in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia on December 21 2016. (Photo by Julian Smith/EPA)

Raquel Poti poses for photographers during the “Amigos da Onça” street party on the second day of Carnival on February 10, 2024 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Stunning image capture the moment a tiny harvest mouse uses wheat stems as stilts as he munches on a kernel in UK in August 2025. The minute-mouse, who weighs as much as a 2p coin and is only two-inches-long, uses his prehensile tail to keep himself perfectly level. (Photo by Tony Nellis/South West News Service)

Among the fish populations that could be harmed by the Xayaburi dam in Laos is the critically endangered Mekong giant catfish, considered by the Guinness Book of World Records to be the world’s largest freshwater fish. The fish, which grows to 650 pounds and about 10 feet long, is only found in the Mekong River. It is migratory, moving between downstream habitats in Cambodia upstream to northern Thailand and Laos each year to spawn. Some experts fear the Xayaburi dam could block the migration and drive the giant catfish to extinction. (Photo by Courtesy of Zeb Hogan/University of Nevada, Reno)