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)

Coast and marine winner: Storm Gull (Lesser black-backed gull), New Haven, East Sussex. (Photo by Craig Denford/British Wildlife Photography Awards)

Giraffes doing the splits to get a drink of water from the watering hole at the Zimanga Private Game Reserve in South Africa on March 31, 2022. (Photo by Hendri Venter/Animal News Agency)

A raccoon crawls out of its hiding place on the roof in Berlin, Germany on May 12, 2020. Every evening he leaves his sleeping place to go in search of food. (Photo by Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa)

A calico sits in its enclosure and suns itself in Hessen, Germany on May 28, 2021. The Opel Zoo presents a walk-in Madagascar aviary for caltas and varis. The primate species is native to Madagascar and is threatened with extinction. (Photo by Andreas Arnold/dpa)

Young Haitian migrants hang out in the Batey La Lima community, an impoverished community surrounded by a massive sugarcane plantation in the coastal city of La Romana, Dominican Republic, Wednesday, November 17, 2021. As the rest of the world closes its doors to Haitian migrants, the country that shares an island with Haiti also is cracking down in a way that human rights activists say hasn’t been seen in decades. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)

Sha'carri Richardson of the U.S. readies herself for the start of heat 2 in the women's 200m at the World Athletics Championship at the National Athletics Centre, Budapest, Hungary on August 23, 2023. (Photo by Dylan Martinez/Reuters)

Lava crosses the main road to Grindavík and flows on the road leading to the Blue Lagoon, in Grindavík, Iceland, Thursday, February 8, 2024. (Photo by Marco Di Marco/AP Photo)