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)

A ballet student from the Kibera based Project Elimu poses ahead of a public show in Kibera on August 14, 2024. Project Elimu, a community driven non profit organization, provides afterschool art, sport education programs for young people age 3 to 22. During school holidays the center holds street perfomances to encourage more students to join the dance center. Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi, one of the largest in Africa. (Photo by Gordwin Odhiambo/AFP Photo)

Car headlights illuminate a woman walking through city streets as snow accumulates on December 16, 2020 in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Winter Storm Gail is expected to bring more than a foot of snow in parts of the Northeast. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

Participants gather during a traditional hunting contest, involving tamed golden eagles and hawks, in Almaty, Kazakhstan on December 1, 2018. (Photo by Pavel Mikheyev/Reuters)

An Aymara woman with a sheep waves to the crowd during a Christmas parade in La Paz, Bolivia December 12, 2015. (Photo by David Mercado/Reuters)

A guard follows participants down a hallway in “Squid Game: The Trials”, an in-person interactive competition experience based on the Netflix show “Squid Games”, on December 20, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. At “Squid Game: The Trials” in Los Angeles, fans of all ages can relive the most emotional moments of Netflix's South Korean hit show – but there is a lot less blood and no one wins any prize money. (Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP Photo)

The world's biggest wild animal farmer, Carr Hartley of Rumuruti in Kenya, sells animals to zoos, circuses and film companies. (Photo by Maxim Ruston/BIPs/Getty Images). November 1956

A picture taken with a drone shows a painting made of flowers, titled “Summer Flower Bed”, by the artist Elita Patmalniece at Kronvalda park in Riga, Latvia, 19 July 2023. (Photo by Toms Kalnins/EPA)