A dog jumps into a swimming pool to retrieve a ball during the Chatsworth House Country Fair near Edensor, Britain on August 31, 2018. (Photo by Darren Staples/Reuters)

Run by the Society of German Nature Photographers (Gesellschaft Deutscher Tierfotografen), the prestigious annual contest celebrates the best wildlife photography from members in Germany. Here: Landscapes, second place: Florian Smit, “Rainforest” (Danum valley, Borneo). (Photo by Florian Smit/2019 GDT Nature Photographer of the Year)

Polar frame, by Dmitry Kokh, Russia. When Kokh’s boat approached the small island of Kolyuchin in the Russian High Arctic, which had been abandoned by humans since 1992, he was surprised to spot movement in one of the houses. Binoculars revealed polar bears – more than 20 in total – exploring the ghost town. Dmitry used a low-noise drone to document them. (Photo by Dmitry Kokh/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022)

A caiman in the Pantanal region of Brazil in 2021. They are used to seeing humans, allowing the photographer, Leighton Lum, a close-up shot. (Photo by Leighton Lum/Caters News Agency)

A fuzzy caterpillar on a basil plant in west Bengal, India on December 25, 2023. The caterpillar’s defence system is its hair, which has microscopic barbs that break off easily in the skin of would-be predators. (Photo by Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A juvenile European starling hops from deer to deer eating insects. The white-tailed deer did not seem at all bothered by the bird - who can be seen cleaning it of ticks and bugs. The starling was one of a flock near the herd of deer in Sandy Hook, New Jersey, USA in the last decade of November 2025. (Photo by Erik Kessler/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Holly Spring, a New Zealand photographer, says she is inspired by her daughter Violet, who was born with multiple ailments; Hirschsprung’s Disease, a blockage of the large intestine and Symbrachydactyly, a limb abnormality. The series was designed to show her daughter that she “can live a life without obstacles”. (Photo by Holly Spring)

A leopard skin burns as Indian officials and activists burn wildlife contraband including tiger and leopard skins, and bones as part of a campaign to save the tiger in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, July 30, 2013. Despite conservation efforts, tiger numbers in India have declined due to rampant poaching of the cats for their valuable pelts and body parts that are highly prized in traditional Chinese medicine. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo)