The first seal pup to be born this season at a major colony of grey seals on the Farne Islands sits beside its mother on Brownsman Island, England on September 30, 2015. (Photo by Owen Humphreys/PA 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)

A baby sloth uses his mother as a hammock while she feasts on papayas in Heredia province in Costa Rica in April 2023. (Photo by William Steele/Solent News)

Zheng Qinwen of China returns a shot to Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic in a women's singles semi-final match, of the China Open tennis tournament, at the National Tennis Center in Beijing, Saturday, October 5, 2024. (Photo by Achmad Ibrahim/AP Photo)

Photographer Vincent Jansen travels throughout Europe, visiting beautiful abandoned places. He explores churches, factories, sanatoriums, mortuaries, villas and theaters, all quietly waiting for renovation or demolition. His photos show a unique perspective on what is happening behind the “no trespassing” signs: where nature is slowly gaining ground and the desolation, loneliness and decay leave their stunning traces. Photo: This piano was located in one of many rooms of a huge chateau in Poland. (Photo by Vincent Jansen)

Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

It's not often that two ferocious tigers have to beat a hasty retreat from a confrontation. But it seems that the wrath of a mother bear protecting two cubs on her back was more than enough to scare this pair off. Wildlife photographer Aditya Singh captured the encounter during a visit to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, India.

Tokyo DisneySea at Urayasu, Chiba prefecture, is holding Christmas festivities each night until December 25, 2012. At neighboring Tokyo Disneyland, the Christmas Fantasy parade is held twice daily at the theme park. (Photo by Disneyland)