Timbuktu: A UN peacekeeper from Burkina Faso stands guard at the Djinguereber mosque, built in the 14th century, during a visit by a UN delegation on election day in Timbuktu, Mali, July 28, 2013. (Photo by Joe Penney/Reuters)

A pelican on a lake in California in the first decade of January 2024 deftly snares a large trout after scooping it up, tossing it into the air and catching it in its bill. (Photo by Jiahong Zeng/Solent news)

A girl wearing a flower wreath takes part in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, on March 17, 2025. (Photo by Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters)

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)

This photo taken on February 9, 2020 shows children playing in front of their homes in Tarmaw Lawri village in the Lahe township in Myanmar's Sagaing region. A haunting refrain pierces the night as the tribeswomen of the Gongwang Bonyo, among the most isolated people in Myanmar, dance around a campfire to bless the harvest ahead. (Photo by Ye Aung Thu/AFP Photo)

A tufted puffin is seen in Kamchatka Territory, Russia on July 17, 2018. (Photo by Yuri Smityuk/TASS)

Elizabeth Svensson (right), 35 and Klaudia Zakrzewska, 27, from London, arrive back in the UK at Heathrow Terminal 2, after being on holiday in Dubai for 15 days, during England's third national lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus on Friday January 29, 2021. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Images via Getty Images)

The colourful process of salt harvesting is captured at the Hon Khoi Salt Fields in Nha Trang, Vietnam in December 2022. (Photo by Hilton Chen/Solent News & Photo Agency)