A boy plays in water from a broken fire hydrant in Rosemead, California on Saturday, May 10, 2025, seeking relief as spring heat breaks temperature records across the Southland. (Photo by Ringo Chiu/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Romanian singing duo Gabriella and Monica Irimia, The Cheeky Girls prforms in Falkirk, Scotland on May 4, 2003. (Photo by Michael Schofield/News Group Newspapers Ltd)

“Nature is beautiful and amazing – i just point my camera at it”. – Black Cat. Photo: “I really need a manicure”! (Photo by Black Cat)

Sasha Muir and Margaret Davidson sit in a car as some of the 30 barbary macaques, known as the Middle Hill Troop after living between the top of Gibraltar rock and the town, show what happens when motorists forget to lock their luggage compartments, as Scotland’s only monkey drive-through section opens at Blair Drummond safari park in Stirling, Scotland on October 8, 2015. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)

Rocky the cat's recovery from a nerve condition in his legs is coming along swimmingly – thanks to regular hydrotherapy sessions at a 20ft-long swimming pool in United Kingdom in the second decade of March 2022. The two-year-old wears a life vest to help keep him afloat and needs a plastic toy to lure him from one end of the pool to the other. (Photo by Max Willcock/BNPS Press Agency)

Hot air balloons in flight over Melbourne, Australia on January 24, 2022. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A boy plays on the glass at Thailand's first skywalk in Bangkok, Thailand on November 18, 2018. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)