Afghan children play on the remains of a Soviet-era armored personnel carrier on the outskirts of Jalalabad on February 15, 2016. Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan on February 15, 1989, after ten years of fighting against Mujahidin militiamen. (Photo by Noorullah Shirzada/AFP Photo)

In this picture taken on December 13, 2017, a woman commutes on a street on a cold day in Baoding. As temperatures dipped below freezing in a northern Chinese village, a group of parka-clad women tried to stay warm as they played mahjong around a small gas stove in a grocery store. (Photo by Fred Dufour/AFP Photo)

Women wearing traditional attire take a selfie as they practice the Garba, the traditional dance of Gujarat state, ahead of Navratri in Ahmedabad, India, Tuesday, September 20, 2022. The Hindu festival of Navratri, or nine nights, will begin Sept. 26. (Photo by Ajit Solanki/AP Photo)

Voodoo followers, called Pitit Fey, attend a ceremony during the Day of the Dead celebrations at the Meyotte cemetery in Kay Gouye, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, November 1, 2021. (Photo by Claudia Daut/Reuters)

American actress and singer Rainey Qualley outside Proenza Schouler on Saturday, September 9, 2023 in Manhattan, New York. (Photo by Calla Kessler for The Washington Post)

Taliban security forces ride horses along the Qargha Lake on the outskirts of Kabul on May 11, 2023. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

An Afghan man mourns outside a damaged house, after earthquakes at Mazar Dara village in Nurgal district, Kunar province, in Eastern Afghanistan, on September 1, 2025. (Photo by Wakil Kohsar/AFP Photo)

Behaviour: Mammals category. Giant Gathering by Tony Wu, USA. Dozens of sperm whales mingled noisily off Sri Lanka’s northeast coast, stacked as far down as Tony could see. This was a congregation of dozens of social units, like a gathering of the clans. Aggregations like this could be a critical part of the whales’ rich social lives but are rarely reported. Some two thirds of the population was wiped out before commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This kind of major gathering could be “a sign that populations are recovering”, says Tony. (Photo by Tony Wu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017)