The shortlist for the coveted Bird Photographer of the Year awards has been announced by Nature Photographers and the British Trust for Ornithology. Here: Red-billed oxpecker on an impala, Kruger National Park, South Africa. (Photo by Edmund Aylmer/BPOTY/Cover Images/The Guardian)

Participants race during the Red Bull Box Cart Race challenges in Bo Kaap, one of the iconic neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa on November 6, 2022. (Photo by Esa Alexander/Reuters)

A giraffe quenches its thirst at a watering hole at Zimanga Private Game Reserve, South Africa in the second decade of December 2023. (Photo by Janette Hill/Animal News Agency)

Mali supporters cheer ahead of the Group F Africa Cup of Nations (CAN) 2021 football match between Mali and Mauritania at Stade de Japoma in Douala on January 20, 2022. (Photo by Charly Triballeau/AFP Photo)

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 meerkat stands guard as her pups cuddle at Mountain Zebra National Park, South Africa early November 2025. (Photo by Nadine Leonard/Two Point O Media)

A pro-democracy protester wearing a Guy Fawkes mask holds a yellow umbrella and a banner in the part of Hong Kong's financial central district protesters are occupying November 2, 2014. The former British colony of Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, has witnessed a month of protests calling on the Beijing-backed government to keep its promise of introducing universal suffrage. The protests have for the most part been peaceful, with occasional clashes between the student-led protesters and Beijing supporters seeking to move them from the streets. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

A member of the riot police gets ready to repel the attacks of protesters during a protest against President Sebastian Piñera during the seventh day of protests against President Sebastian Piñera on October 24, 2019 in Santiago, Chile. Although President Sebastian Piñera announced measures to improve equality, unions called for a national strike and demonstrations continue as casualties are now at least 18. Demands behind the protest include issues like health care, pension system, privatization of water, public transport, education, social mobility and corruption. (Photo by Marcelo Hernandez/Getty Images)