A pair of huchen (Hucho hucho), also known as Danube salmon, swim above a spawning pit that the female has dug into the streambed. The fact that these fish have reached this stage of their life cycle is far from guaranteed. Reaching their spawning grounds requires uninterrupted migration paths, yet they face numerous obstacles, such as impassable weirs. Untamed river sections, like this one on the Pielach in Austria, are crucial for their survival.

A young brown pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) rests on a bridge post, waiting for a fisherman’s leftover bycatch. While brown pelicans are known for their dramatic hunting dives, this individual displayed patience, taking advantage of human activity. Photographed on a bridge where bycatch was occasionally discarded to a crocodile below, this moment allowed for detailed observation of the bird’s plumage and distinctive beak.

Giant forest ants are among the world’s largest ants. These workers are 21 millimetres long (nearly an inch), while soldiers are 28 millimetres (just over an inch). Yet, despite their size and formidable pincers, capable of inflicting a painful bite, they are not particularly aggressive and for sustenance rely mainly on honeydew, supplemented by insects and bird droppings. At dusk in the forests of southeast Asia, hordes of them congregate at their nest entrances before a sudden mass exodus into the forest canopy in search of food. I discovered this small party on a night hike in Kubah National Park, Sarawak, Borneo. Stroking a large planthopper with their antennae, the ants (a subspecies particular to Borneo, with distinctive pale thighs) are stimulating the colourful sap‑sucker to release sugary honeydew from its rear, which they are eagerly sucking up. In return for this energy-rich liquid, some of which they may regurgitate later to other workers, the ants may offer the planthopper some protection from predators and parasites. Despite being buzzed by large, nocturnal wasps drawn to my head-torch, I stayed poised to catch this momentary formation of ants, bustling around their eye‑catching benefactor.

All kinds of benthic invertebrates are crowded together in the last remaining milky puddle of a soda lake. One of those tiny creatures sticks out as it is larger and has a distinct shiny blue egg sack. Branchipus schaefferi is the species name and it belongs to a group known as fairy shrimps. They depend on periodically drying water bodies. When those dry up, most of the small crustaceans have already dispatched their eggs and they die. Their eggs can survive for centuries in the dry ground until they get flooded again and hatch. In spring, the soda lakes are typically filled with water, containing masses of fairy shrimps which are an important food source for migrating and breeding waterbirds. However, those soda lakes are at high risk to get lost due to rising spring temperatures which lead to faster evaporation and continuously dropping ground-water levels, probably caused by the extensive watering of surrounding agricultural area. With time, this enables nutrifying plants and shrubs to grow on this ecologically valuable area. Their roots penetrate the sealing layer of the soda lakes which leads to an even faster loss of water and will finally lead to a shrub encroachment of the former soda lake.

Section of a big quartz rock covered partly by map lichens (Rhizocarpon geographicum). Map lichens grow on naked siliceous, acidic rocks in montaneous areas. Their slow radial growth of the map lichen allows dating back certain events from when on the rock became exposed. Among others it is possible to date back lake level changes or monitor the speed of glacial retreat. With an estimated age of 8.600 years, a map lichen from the Artics is thought to be the oldest living organism on earth.