Merit Prize Winner: “A Well Earned Rest in the Sahara”. This photo of Moussa Macher, our Tuareg guide, was taken at the summit of Tin-Merzouga, the largest dune (or erg) in the Tadrat region of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria. Moussa rested while waiting for us to finish our 45-minute struggle to the top. It only took ten minutes of rolling, running, and jumping to get back down. The Tadrat is part of the Tassili N'Ajjer National Park World Heritage area, famous for its red sand and engravings and rock paintings of cattle, elephants, giraffes, and rhinos that lived there when the climate was milder. Photo location: Summit of Tin-Merzouga, Tadrat, Tassili N'Ajjer National Park, Algeria. (Photo and caption by Evan Cole/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Ave, 4 years-old, of the United States, paints on her father's hand during the International Tattoo Convention Bucharest 2016 in Bucharest, Romania, Sunday, October 16, 2016. Prominent tattoo artists from across the world displayed their skills in the Romanian capital over the weekend. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

These goats threw caution to the wind and scaled this Argan tree right to the very top, even balancing on the most unsturdy of branches. It looks like a bit of a baa-lancing act, but the goats hooves are perfectly adapted to climbing the trees, where they graze on the Argan fruit. Amateur photographer Burak Senbak, 51, took these photos whilst travelling through Morocco in July 2016. Burak is originally from Turkey and works as a mechanical engineer, but has pursued his passion for photography for 10 years. Intrigued by the sight of goats in a tree, Burak couldnt resist the opportunity to take some photos, and said the goats proved a perfect subject. (Photo by Burak Senbak/Caters News)

Workers reinforce the electric pylons at a flooded area as Typhoon Nepartak approaches in Xuancheng, Anhui Province, China, July 9, 2016. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Cloud inversion taken at Sunrise in Mam Tor, Derbyshire, UK on August 30, 2016. (Photo by David Zdanowicz/REX Shutterstock)

An owner poses with her Maine Coon cat in front of a mirror during a cat exhibition in Bishkek on April 19, 2015. Cat lovers from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan took part in the exhibition. (Photo by Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP Photo)

A duck salesman parades his stock to commuters at a busy station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 23, 2018. (Photo by Nazmul Hasan Khan/Caters News Agency)

Graduates dance as they take part in a “Last school bell” ceremony at a school in Minsk, Belarus on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)