A 2 year old cattle dog emerges from the water after retrieving a ball during the 2nd Annual Rio Grande Doggy Paddle held at the Rio Grande Pool, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA on September 12, 2021. (Photo by Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Albuquerque Journal via ZUMA/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Miss Czech Republic, Karolina Kokesova, presents herself on stage during the preliminary stage of the 70th Miss Universe beauty pageant in Israel's southern Red Sea coastal city of Eilat on December 10, 2021. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP Photo)

A dramatic rise in owning exotic pets in China is fuelling global demand for threatened species. The growing trade in alligators, snakes, monkeys, crocodiles and spiders is directly linked to species loss in some of the world’s most threatened ecosystems. Here: A fennec fox (Vulpes zerda) is groomed in a pet store in central Beijing. Native to the Sahara in North Africa, the species became a popular pet after being depicted as a character in Disney’s 2016 animated movie Zootopia. Individuals can cost between $2,000–$3,000. (Photo by Sean Gallagher/The Guardian)

A kingfisher ignores the “no fishing” sign after catching food at Teddesley Park in Staffordshire, England, on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Photo by Stuart Brock/Anadolu/Getty Images)

“The young adult humpback could have a plot waiting for it at a whale graveyard hidden in bushland at Garrigal Garigal National Park”. – Janet Fife-Yeomans via AdelaideNow

Photo: People gather on the beach to see the carcass of a male sub-adult humpback whale that washed up at New Port Beach overnight at Newport Beach overnight on August 1, 2012 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne)

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's north pole. In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane's eye is about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are traveling 330 mph(150 meters per second). The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon. Photo: The spinning vortex of Saturn's north polar storm resembles a deep red rose of giant proportions surrounded by green foliage in this false-color image from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)

A menacing swarm of locusts that entered southern Israel earlier this week has been largely smitten, according to the Israeli government and local reports. But some of the insects' ilk may be back later this week. (Photo by Eliyahu Hershkovitz)

A man works inside a bakery in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria December 17, 2015. (Photo by Khalil Ashawi/Reuters)