Kea are the only true alpine parrots in the world and thrive as cunning opportunists in the freezing conditions of the Southern Alps. Kea are thought to have developed their wide array of food-finding strategies during the last great ice age, where they learned to adapt using their unusual powers of curiosity. (Photo by Tom Walker/BBC Pictures/The Guardian)

The Northern Lights glow green in a spectacular light show above a field of trees frozen solid with snow. (Photo by Jaak Sarv/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Pangolins in Crisis: Brent Stirton, South Africa; 1st place, Natural world and wildlife. “Pangolins are the world’s most illegally trafficked mammals, with an estimated one million trafficked to Asia in the last 10 years. Their scales are used in traditional Chinese and Vietnamese medicine, and their meat is sold as a high-priced delicacy. As a result, pangolins are listed as critically endangered and anyone who trades or consumes them is breaking the law. This body of work exposes the trade, while exploring aspects of illegality and celebrating the people who are trying to save these animals”. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Sony World Photography Awards 2020)

On the afternoon of the January 3, 2025, seagulls are gathering around a child holding shrimp crackers at Haeundae Beach in Busan, South Korea. (Photo by Dong-Hwan Kim)

Devotees perform religious rituals by splashing holy water during the Madhav Narayan Festival, a month-long event dedicated to Lord Madhav Narayan, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in Thacho, Lalitpur, Nepal on February 10, 2025. Devotees also carry butter lamps and blow conch shells (shankha) as part of the sacred observance. (Photo by Safal Prakash Shrestha/ZUMA Press Wire)

Andrea Rossato, Italy. Professional; Candid. Children enjoy the simple pleasures of a seaside holiday. (Photo by Andrea Rossato/Sony World Photography Awards)

Ukrainian refugee circus student Mariia Lysytska stretching in a training room in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, February 13, 2023. More than 100 Ukrainian refugee circus students, between the ages of 5 and 20, found a home with the Capital Circus of Budapest after escaping the embattled cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv amid Russian bombings. (Photo by Denes Erdos/AP Photo)

A rescued red fox rests under a closet at “Pawsitive Beginnings” fox rescue sanctuary in Key Largo, Florida, USA on August 1, 2023. Pawsitive Beginnings is a nonprofit group that works closely with organizations in parts of the USA where fur farming takes place to find permanent placement for foxes when needed. According to Pawsitive Beginnings, about 300 fur farms operate in the United States and there are very few federal laws to regulate the treatment of these animals born in captivity, raised for one year, and then killed for their coats. (Photo by Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA/EFE)