The British Ecological Society has announced the winners of its annual photography competition, Capturing Ecology. Taken by international ecologists and students, the winning images will be exhibited at the society’s joint annual meeting in Ghent in December. Here: Overall runner-up; Toucan, Mark Tatchell. (Photo by Mark Tatchell/British Ecological Society)

A Hindu holy man with his face smears with ash and vermilion powder adjusts his head gear sitting at the courtyard of the Pashupatinath Temple during Shivaratri festival in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, March 4, 2019. Shivaratri, or the night of Shiva, is dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva, the Hindu god of death and destruction. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

A leopard attacks a forest guard at Prakash Nagar village near Salugara on the outskirts of Siliguri on July 19, 2011. Six people were mauled by the leopard after the feline strayed into the village area before it was caught by forestry department officials. Forest officials made several attempt to tranquilised the full grown leopard that was wandering through a part of the densely populated city when curious crowds startled the animal, a wildlife official said. (Photo by Diptendu Dutta/AFP Photo)

A lone male cheetah is set upon by a pack of African wild dogs. Peter Haygarth had been following the dogs as they hunted in Zimanga Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. On first encountering the cheetah, the dogs were wary, but as the rest of the pack arrived, their confidence grew and they began to encircle the cat. Peter kept his focus on the cat’s face. In a few minutes the spat was over as the cheetah fled. (Behaviour: mammals category). (Photo by Peter Haygarth)

An elderly woman sits next to shanties as a Philippine Airlines (PAL) plane flies over a slum area in Paranaque city, Metro Manila, Philippines, 06 March 2025. According to the latest report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), poverty rate dropped to 15.5 percent in 2024 from 18.1 percent in 2021, with 17.54 million people living below the poverty line, a decrease of 2.4 million from the previous survey two years earlier. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA)

“Warming up”. This photo I capture in the early afternoon, the animal species of lemurs fly. Photo location: Sambas, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. (Photo and caption by Hendy Mp/National Geographic Photo Contest)

Coloured X-ray of a barn owl. A physicist has used X-ray to create an extraordinary collection of artwork. Arie van't Riets pictures reveal birds, fish, monkeys and flowers in an incredible new light. The 66-year-old, from Bathmen in the Netherlands, began X-raying flowers as a means to teach radiographers and physicians how the machine worked. But after adding a bit of colour to the pictures, the retired medical physicist realised the potential for an exciting new collection of art. (Photo by Arie van't Riet/Barcroft Media)

Bangladeshi fisherman feed their otters as they catch fish in Narail some 208 kms from Dhaka on March 11, 2014. The fishermen are using a rare technique that relies on coordination between man and trained otters, a centuries-old fishing partnership that has already long died out in other parts of Asia. (Photo by Munir Uz Zaman/AFP Photo)