Shortlisted: Pooyan Shadpoor, Houcheraghi. While walking along the shore of Larak, Iran – an island in the Persian Gulf – Shadpoor came across this luminous scene. The “magical lights of (the) plankton ... enchanted me so that I snapped the shot”, he writes. (Photo by Pooyan Shadpoor/2016 EPOTY)

A woman writes a get well message to former President Donald Trump during a prayer vigil hosted by Turning Point Action near the venue for the Republican National Convention (RNC), at Zeidler Union Square in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on July 14, 2024. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Albert is not the happiest looking kitty in the world. Even Tard the Grumpy Cat looks more cheerful. Well… maybe not cheerful. But at least Tard doesn’t have a look of menace and a desire to kill in his eyes. What could have caused a kitty to wear such a stern look all the time? It might be the fact that he’s all curly. Almost no one likes to stand out too much, and maybe Albert is no exception. Despite his menacing appearance, Albert’s owner claims that he’s a very polite cat and plays nicely with children. Though it is hard to believe at first glance, we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, even when we’re looking at a cat.

A Pakistani scavenger girl writes on a notebook she collected from a garbage, while another girl sits next to her in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Thousands of children pick recyclable items from waste dumping points to earn living for their poor families. (Photo by K. M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

A male sea lion Leo writes the word of tiger in Chinese character at a New Year's attraction to celebrate the Year of the Tiger at the Hakkeijima Sea Paradise aquarium in Yokohama, suburban Tokyo on Monday, January 3, 2022. The calligraphy attraction by the sea lion will be carried through January 31. (Photo by Yoshio Tsunoda/AFLO/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Ramela Meseljevic, a 7 year-old girl born without both of her hands and one of her legs shorter than the other, writes during classes in the her school in Begov Han, Bosnia and Herzegovina December 2, 2015. International Day of Disabled Persons is observed on December 3 with the theme "Inclusion matters: access and empowerment of people of all abilities". (Photo by Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

US freestyler, gold medalist Mcrae Williams competes during the men' s SlopeStyle (SS) finals at the FIS Snowboard and Freestyle Ski World Championships 2017 in Sierra Nevada on March 19, 2017. (Photo by Albert Gea/Reuters)

“Cassowaries are large, flightless birds related to emus and (more distantly) to ostriches, rheas, and kiwis”, writes Olivia Judson in the September issue of National Geographic magazine. How large? People-size: Adult males stand well over five foot five and top 110 pounds. Females are even taller, and can weigh more than 160 pounds. Dangerous when roused, they’re shy and peaceable when left alone. But even birds this big and tough are prey to habitat loss. The dense New Guinea and Australia rain forests where they live have dwindled. Today cassowaries might number 1,500 to 2,000. And because they help shape those same forests – by moving seeds from one place to another – “if they vanish”, Judson writes, “the structure of the forest would gradually change” too. (Photo by Christian Ziegler/National Geographic)