Grand prize winner: environmental photographer of the year 2023; also 1st place in the humanity v nature category; and winner of the 2023 public award. Lopé national park, Gabon, 2021. An angry elephant tries to defend itself after it was hit by a train that crosses paths the animals use within Lopé national park. Park officials decided the elephant was too severely injured to be saved. After it was killed, the park director distributed the meat to local people. As the forest loses its carrying capacity to sustain its megafauna, this kind of human-wildlife conflict is increasing. (Photo by Jasper Doest/Environmental Photography Award)

The rabbit population of San Juan Island, brought in to feed lighthouse keepers, got so big that in the 1930s foxes were introduced to kill them. Although they are red foxes, their coats can be orange, silver, black or multi-coloured. Picture date: September 2023. (Photo by Jun Zuo/Solent News)

Pfc. Esmeralda Calderon stands and salutes the flag on the 15th green during the first round of the LPGA golf tournament at Kingsmill Resort and Golf Course in Williamsburg, Va., Thursday May 23, 2019. Pfc. Calderon, from San Antonio, Texas, is a Marine assigned to Naval Weapons Station Yorktown. (Photo by John Sudbrink/The Daily Press via AP Photo)

Birds behaviour winner: Land of the Eagle by Audun Rikardsen, Norway. High on a ledge, on the coast near his home in northern Norway, Rikardsen carefully positioned an old tree branch that he hoped would make a perfect golden eagle lookout. To this, he bolted a tripod head with a camera, flashes and motion sensor attached, and built himself a hide a short distance away. From time to time, he left road‑kill carrion nearby. Very gradually – over the next three years – a golden eagle got used to the camera and started to use the branch regularly to survey the coast below. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

A black golden shaded British Shorthair cat is admired by visitors as he is carried at the Cat Extravaganza event at Olympia in London, Sunday, February 18, 2024. Loving Cats Worldwide brought its Cat Extravaganza and Rescue Awareness Event to London, where visitors could learn all about this intelligent species by observing the show's five judging rings. Plus, meet with local rescues and charities, as well as hear educational anecdotes about different cat breeds. (Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)

A king eider sea duck tackles a prickly dinner of sea urchin on a lake in Batsfjord, Norway in the last decade of August 2024. The drake’s breeding plumage consists of a distinctive powder-blue head and neck, orange frontal lobe and a red bill. (Photo by Mia Surakka/Solent News)

This is a “swami” - Valeria Lukyanova (born August 23, 1985), from Odessa, Ukraine. Her other names: Naamah (Нахема; Na'amah (Hebrew: נעמה‎) – is a demonic legendary creature, the mother of divination), Amatue, Nagval and Goddess (бАгиня). She is fond of esoteric, believes that 2012 will be the end of the world, and waits for the planet Nibiru (I'm not kidding). This girl had amused the Russian-language Internet (because the Russians are cynical and heartless people). IMHO she is very beautiful (technical characteristics – Chest: 88cm (34,64 in; may be longer already); Waist: 47cm (18,5 in; may be lesser already) and Hips: 88cm (34,64 in)). Enjoy. (Photos by Valeria Lukyanova)

REUTLINGEN, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 17: Students hang out finished parchment leather at the LGR (Lederinstitut Gerberschule Reutlingen) tannery school on November 17, 2010 in Reutlingen, Germany. Even in early antiquity and up their hair or dried goat and sheep skins were used as material for documents. In the small Asian city Pergamon these skins were processed in large quantities for this purpose, so they formed the main trading arm of the city, of which the name is parchment is derived. In medieval times, reached the parchment is of great importance, it was such as France's production under the supervision of the University of Paris. Even now, important documents, placed on their unlimited shelf life as possible large value (eg diplomas, addresses, memory, writings, documents for primary and keystones) written on parchment...