A blue-tailed bee-eater chases down its prey along the banks of the Kaveri River on the outskirts of the city of Mysore, India in the last decade of June 2025. (Photo by Nitin Jain/Solent News)

A puffin swims underwater in search for fish off the coast of the Farne Islands in Northumberland, North East England in the last decade of July 2025. (Photo by Brian Matthews/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A common gallinule runs across the water to escape a nearby alligator at Green Cay Nature Center in Boynton Beach, Florida on September 4, 2025. Unlike most waterbirds, gallinules have long toes that allow them to walk on floating vegetation. The species is known for its loud, cackling calls that often echo through wetlands. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

This spiky tenrec was spotted in Madagascar’s Mantadia National Park in the last decade of September 2025. Mostly nocturnal and rarely seen, it puffs out its spines when threatened. Spiky tenrecs are excellent swimmers — unlike most spiny mammals, some species of tenrec can forage in streams and rivers, using their spines for protection while hunting aquatic insects and small prey. (Photo by Dale Morris/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A snowy owl (Bubo scandiacus) raised by a falconer as part of a captive-breeding program, pictured in its enclosure in Vysocina, Czech Republic on October 22, 2025. (Photo by Slavek Ruta/ZUMA Press Wire via Alamy Live News)

One of three young oriental small-clawed otters eats a meatball on June 18, 2015 in a zoo in Dresden, eastern Germany. The oriental small-clawed otter female Fussi gave birth to 3 healthy pups. Its pups now leave their burrow to explore the environment. (Photo by Arno Burgi/AFP Photo/DPA)

Bonobo apes, primates unique to Congo and humankind's closest relative, groom one another at a sanctuary just outside the capital Kinshasa, Congo on October 31, 2006. (Photo by Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

These brave models show no fear as they pose with bears, tigers and wolves in scenes straight from the pages of a fairy tale. The snaps show the models cuddling up to the deadly animals and even taking naps with the often unpredictable creatures. Here: “Marina with a bear”. Stepan, a 700-pound grizzly bear, was adopted by a Russian couple when he was just 3 months old. (Photo by Olga Barantseva/Caters News Agency)