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)

A milkman crosses through floodwater at Chak Ali Sher village in Wazirabad district on August 28, 2025, after government issued a flood alert for riverside areas of Punjab province. Water has gushed into the eastern province, Pakistan's breadbasket and home to about half of its 255 million people, with three transboundary rivers swelling beyond their banks. The latest monsoon downpour has killed at least 13 people, according to the National Disaster Management Authority. (Photo by Aamir Qureshi/AFP Photo)

A young Ukrainian woman wears an ear of grain braid during a traditional Ukrainian celebration of Kupalo Night, in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, June 22, 2024. Ukrainians in Warsaw jumped over a bonfire and floated braids to honor the vital powers of water and fire on the Vistula River bank Saturday night, as they celebrated their solstice tradition of Ivan Kupalo Night away from war-torn home. (Photo by Czarek Sokolowski/AP Photo)

“Echus Chasma is a chasma in the Lunae Planum high plateau north of the Valles Marineris canyon system of Mars. Clay has been found in Echus Chasma that means that water once sat there for a time. Echus Chasma is approximately 100 km long and 10 km wide, with valleys ranging in depth from around 1 km to 4 km”. – Wikipedia

Photo: In this handout image supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) on July 16, 2008, The Echus Chasma, one of the largest water source regions on Mars, is pictured from ESA's Mars Express. The data was acquired on September 25, 2005. The dark material shows a network of light-coloured, incised valleys that look similar to drainage networks known on Earth. It is still debated whether the valleys originate from precipitation, groundwater springs or liquid or magma flows on the surface. (Photo by ESA via Getty Images)

South Korean traditional bow artisan Kwon Yeong-Hak works on a bow in his workshop in Yecheon-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea, 26 February 2015. Kwon Yeong-Hak still crafts his bows in the traditional way, carrying on a four-generation family business. The Gakgung bow, of which Kwon is one of the last remaining artisans, is unique to Korea, and is constructed with a variety of materials, including water buffalo horn, oak, bamboo and cattle spinal sinew. A ban on the import of water buffalo horns has put the Gakgung tradition at risk. (Photo by Jeon Heon-Kyun/EPA)

Photographer Lucy Ray says she has been scratched by the pooches who are diving underwater to try and catch a tennis ball. Their wide-eyed desperation has been captured by a specialist underwater photographer who admits she has been bitten and scratched by the pooches who only had eyes for the ball. Lucy Ray, 34, said: “A dog could have the cutest face on land but as soon as they get in the water they can be terrifying. Their eyes bulge and teeth shoot out of their mouth just like an alien as they try to catch the ball”. (Photo by Lucy Ray)

“Eye of a toad”. Animal Portraits, Łukasz Bożycki, Poland. Early spring sees a pond near Łukasz’s home city of Warsaw, Poland, full of mating frogs and a few toads. On this March day, Łukasz shared the pond with them for an evening, sitting in the icy water in his chest-high waders, keeping as still as possible, despite the numbing cold, so that the amphibians could get used to him. “I wanted to find a fresh way of portraying the amphibians”, he says, “at water level”. Using a telephoto lens, he focused on one lone toad and waited for the sun to dip almost below the horizon before pressing the shutter, using flash to bring out the details in the shadow. His prize was “the glorious pool of sunset colour” and fiery glow of the toad’s eye. Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 lens + extension tube; 1/125 sec at f9 (-2.3 e/v); ISO 100; built-in flash. (Photo by Łukasz Bożycki)

A woman poses on the flooded St. Mark's square during an acqua-alta (high-water) alert in Venice, on November 19, 2013. (Photo by Andrea Pattaro/AFP Photo)

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