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)

The Rio dry cargo ship that has ran aground during a storm in December 2018 in Kabardinka, Krasnodar Territory, Russia on August 11, 2020. The vessel has become a tourist attraction of the region. (Photo by Alexander Ryumin/TASS)

A young evacuee of Japanese ancestry waits with the family baggage before leaving by bus for an assembly center in California, in this April 1942 handout photo. February 19, 2017 marks the 75th anniversary of FDR signing executive order 9066, authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War Two. (Photo by Courtesy Clem Albers/Department of the Interior/War Relocation Authority/National Archives/Reuters)

A dog stands inside a voting booth as people vote during European Parliament and municipal elections, in Budapest, Hungary, on June 9, 2024. (Photo by Marton Monus/Reuters)

“People and Space”. Winner: Wanderer in Patagonia by Yuri Zvezdny (Russia) A lone stargazer stares up at the stars of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as they stretch across the night sky over the glacier “White Stones” (Piedras Blancas) in the Los Glaciares National Park, Argentina. El Chaltén, Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, 27 September 2016 iOptron Sky-Tracker mount, Sony A7S camera, 18 mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 5000, 30-second exposure Wanderer in Patagonia. (Photo by Yuri Zvezdny/Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2017)

Mr. Zhong Hua, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, took this image of the peripheral nerves (those outside of the brain) in an 11.5-day-old mouse embryo, magnified five times. (Photo by Zhong Hua)

Teacher Mahajera Armani and her class of girls pose for a picture at their study open area, founded by Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), outside Jalalabad city, Afghanistan September 19, 2015. (Photo by Reuters/Parwiz)

A woman tour skates on the frozen lake of Orlangen, south of Stockholm, Sweden, on December 23, 2016. Tour skating is recreational long distance ice skating on natural ice particularly popular in the Nordic countries. (Photo by Tobias Roestlund/AFP Photo/TT News Agency)