Eddy the badger is pictured as Nicanor goes to leave water and fruits for the animals affected by the fires, in San Buenaventura, Bolivia on November 26, 2023. (Photo by Claudia Morales/Reuters)

A Germany fan looks dejected after the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Group E match between Costa Rica and Germany at Al Bayt Stadium on December 1, 2022 in Al Khor, Qatar. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

A starling jealously guards a seed station in the back garden of the photographer’s Michigan home in January 2024. (Photo by Lisa Cavanary/Solent News)

A truck transporting 20 tons of fish lost its load after crashing on a road near Liepen, eastern Germany on April 20, 2018. (Photo by Stefan Sauer/AFP Photo/DPA)

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)

Revellers out in Blackpool, Lancashire, United Kingdom on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2018. (Photo by Lorne Campbell/Guzelian)

Winner – Animal Portraits: The pose by Mogens Trolle, Denmark. A young male proboscis monkey cocks his head slightly and closes his eyes. Unexpected pale blue eyelids now complement his immaculately groomed auburn hair. He poses for a few seconds as if in meditation. He is a wild visitor to the feeding station at Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary in Sabah, Borneo – “the most laid-back character”, says Trolle, “quite unlike anything I’ve ever seen on another monkey” – connects us, he hopes, with a fellow primate. (Photo by Mogens Trolle/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020)

A mountain hare shakes off rain from its fur, in Findhorn Valley, Moray, Scotland in the second decade of August 2024. In summer, the hare’s coat is a grey-brown colour with a tinge of blue, making them hard to spot against the heather moorland. In winter, it changes to almost completely white for camouflage in the snow. (Photo by Will Hall/Solent News)