A child is seen with persimmons in Denizli, Turkiye on October 24, 2022. (Photo by Ummu Nisan Kandilcioglu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

A gull gives its familiar cry on the roof of a beach bar on the Baltic coast on July 16, 2024. (Photo by Jens Büttner/dpa)

A performer plays the violin as a passerby wears a mask in Times Square as Manhattan is shrouded in haze and smoke which drifted south from wildfires in Canada, in New York City, New York, U.S., June 7, 2023. (Photo by Maye-E Wong/Reuters)

People wearing and holding helmets take part in a drill simulating a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in Tokyo, Japan, August 26, 2016. The drill was held in Ginza, a high-end shopping and business district, and held ahead of the 93rd anniversary of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 which claimed at least 100,000 casualties. It was one of the largest natural disasters in recorded history and since 1960, September 1st, and the period around that date has been declared as national disaster prevention awareness period. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

Members of the special operations team conduct a building climbing training in Qinzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, April 13, 2021. (Photo credit should read Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Saudi female firearm trainer, Mona Al Khurais, teaches a Saudi boy on safe usage of weapons at the Top-Gun shooting range in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 28, 2021. (Photo by Ahmed Yosri/Reuters)

Looking for love by Tony Wu, USA. Highly commended, Animal Portraits. “Accentuating his mature appearance with pastel colours, protruding lips and an outstanding pink forehead, this Asian sheepshead wrasse sets out to impress females and see off rivals, which he will head-butt and bite, near Japan’s remote Sado Island. Individuals start out as females, and when they reach a certain age and size – up to a metre (more than 3 feet) long – can transform into males. Long-lived and slow-growing, the species is intrinsically vulnerable to overfishing”. (Photo by Tony Wu/2018 Wildlife 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)