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)

Fossil records indicate that this early lizard, Megalania (Megalania prisca or Varanus priscus), was a whopping seven metres in length. They were part of a megafaunal assemblage that inhabited southern Australia during the Pleistocene. The youngest fossil remains date to around 50,000 years ago. The first aboriginal settlers of Australia might have encountered them and been a factor in their extinction. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)

CANADA: Stanley Ferdinand filets large trout he caught in Great Bear Lake in Deline, Northwest Territories, Canada September 8, 2016. (Photo by Pat Kane/Reuters)

A runner dressed as Spiderman poses before the annual “Sao Silvestre Run”, an international race through the streets of Sao Paulo, Brazil on December 31, 2021. (Photo by Carla Carniel/Reuters)

New species have been created by an enterprising artist who has merged photos of animals together in this incredible series of pictures. Californian Sarah DeRemer, 25, started making hybrid animals as a way to improve her photoshop skills. Here: cross between a tabby cat and a sparrow. (Photo by Sarah DeRemer/Caters News)

“Still” also known as the “Mirror Man”, created by artist Rob Mulholland which symbolises the physical and spiritual relationship between humans and the natural world, has returned to Loch Earn in St. Fillans on May 9, 2025 after being removed in 2017 due to storm damage. (Photo by Lesley Martin)

People work to rescue a dog from under rubble, in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, in Iskenderun, Turkey February 8, 2023, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. (Photo by Gurcan Ozturk via Reuters)

The sign above the door of restaurant and hotel “Am Paulusbogen” is partially submerged in the flooded centre of the Bavarian town of Passau, about 200 km (124 miles) north-east of Munich June 3, 2013. (Photo by Michaela Rehle/Reuters)