People play with snow during the first snowfall in a park in Tehran, Iran on December 24, 2022. (Photo by Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)

Palestinian bedouin shepherds pull their lambs into the water to wash them, in Gaza City, on April 29, 2016. Every year before the beginning of the summer, shepherds wash their herds in the sea. (Photo by Mohammed Abed/AFP Photo)

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore’s quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double. On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo. Here: Barking owl. (Photo by Joel Sartore/National Geographic Photo Ark/The Guardian)

A pregnant woman poses on June 19, 2018 in Vertou, western France. France had an estimated population of 68.4 million by January 1, 2024, representing a further year-on-year increase of 0.3 percent, limited by a marked drop in the birth rate, the INSEE national statistics bureau of France reported on January 16, 2024. In 2023, 678,000 babies were born in France, 6.6 percent fewer than the previous year, the lowest number of births in any year since 1946. Over the same period, there were 631,000 deaths, down 6.5 percent on 2022, a year marked by the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and episodes of extreme heat. (Photo by Loic Venance/AFP Photo)

The abandoned 77-metre (250-feet) cargo ship MV Alta is pictured stuck on rocks near the village of Ballycotton south-east of Cork in Southern Ireland on February 18, 2020. A “ghost ship” drifting without a crew for more than a year washed ashore on Ireland's south coast in high seas caused by Storm Dennis, the Republic's coast guard said. (Photo by Cathal Noonan/AFP Photo)

Venezuelan Hildemaro Ortiz relaxes inside of an abandoned bus in the border city of Pacaraima, Brazil on April 13, 2019. Ten destitute Venezuelan migrants who fled their country's crisis did not get far when they crossed into Brazil: they have been living for three months on an abandoned bus just across the border. (Photo by Pilar Olivares/Reuters)

Participants in fancy costumes take part in march during the Prague Pride parade in downtown Prague, Czech Republic, 10 August 2019. Several thousands of people attended the 9th Prague Pride to support the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) communities. (Photo by Martin Divisek/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Iraqi army soldiers warm themselves next to a fire near the Qayara air base, south of Mosul, Iraq, Tuesday, November 1, 2016. The U.N. human rights office is lauding efforts by the U.S.-led coalition in the battle against the Islamic State group in Mosul. The office in Geneva says coalition flights over Iraq have largely succeeded in preventing IS from bringing in 25,000 more civilians to the city center, where the militant group has been using people as human shields as Iraqi forces advance on Mosul. (Photo by Felipe Dana/AP Photo)