Grand title winner: Environmental photographer of the year. The Bitter Death Of Birds by Mehdi Mohebi Pour. This photo shows the efforts of the environmental forces to collect the bodies and prevent the spread of this disease. The Miankaleh wetland is being destroyed by changes in the climate and it is my duty as a photographer to highlight these problems and create a record for history. I want to prevent the complete destruction of the wetland and the potential environmental disaster by showing the issues and threats to these beautiful natural places. (Photo by Mehdi Mohebi Pour/Environmental Photographer of the Year)

Bloodthirsty by Thomas P. Peschak, Germany/South Africa — winner, Behaviour: birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds. The finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up, so they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave their nests the boobies tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. (Photo by Thomas P. Peschak/2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Black Winged Stilt is seen on Kavak Delta, a natural and ecologically important wetland for many migratory birds, in Canakkale, Turkiye on May 13, 2025. (Photo by Alper Tuydes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

A fishmonger carries a shark on his motorcycle in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia August 25, 2016. (Photo by Iggoy el Fitra/Reuters/Antara Foto)

Riot police detain a woman during a protest near Mong Kok police station in Hong Kong, China on September 7, 2019. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

A man salts a downtown sidewalk in Washington, Thursday, March 5, 2015, as snow begins to fall. The U.S. federal government said its offices in the Washington area will be closed Thursday because of a new round of winter weather expected in the region. The Office of Personnel Management said non-emergency personnel in and around Washington were granted excused absences for the day. Emergency employees and telework-ready employees were expected to work. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Giant panda Shuixiu's two babies are pictured at their room in Shenshuping base of China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda on November 3, 2021 in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province of China. (Photo by An Yuan/China News Service via Getty Images)

This sumatran orangutan named Kulsum was captured playing with a piece of broken bottle making a pair of makeshift sunglasses to ward off the sun in Jakarta, Indonesia in November 2022. Sumatran orangutans are critically endangered of the three orangutan species and are only found in the north of the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. An orangutan has a long lifespan and can live up to 30 years in the wild with many living up to 50. (Photo by Syahrul Ramadan/Media Drum Images)