CARRYING a fully grown goat on his back, this five-year-old boy is a child shepherd in the mountains of northern Ethiopia. Away from modern civilization, children living in the Simien Mountains spend their gruelling days herding, or carrying, animals and walking miles through the rocky terrain. From the age of five these children are responsible for goats and sheep in the highlands and when they do rest, the boys and girls are schooled in classrooms made from mud, rocks and wood. German photographer Mario Gerth trekked 3,000 metres up the Ethiopian mountain range to visit this group of Tigray people and their hardy children and witness their unorthodox lifestyle.
A mining town in Australia’s outback appears to be completely deserted, but its residents have escaped the scorching heat by living in underground caves .
A middle spotted woodpecker swoops into her nest and feeds her young in a forest in Trentino, Italy .
HUDDLED together on a branch, a pair of adorable Javan scops owls soak up the sun .
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Sam Notaro built his own flood defences to protect his four-bedroom home in Moorland, Somerset Flooding is likely to get worse around Somerset as groundwater levels continue to rise .
It's incredible to think anyone could live in such horrendous squalor - yet two men have been prosecuted for keeping their homes in such revolting conditions that it was no longer fit for their animals .
DIVING boffins fired harpoons into 30-foot-long whale sharks in a bid to put the sea-beasts on Google Maps .
LUMINOUS green rocks could easily be a beach from Superman's homeland of Krypton .
Swirling water and sand create amazing aerial images of river deltas across Iceland .
A brave leopard kicks back and relaxes in the sunshine - just inches from an enormous crocodile .
DIPPING his head into the vase of water, this little squirrel takes a refreshing break from an afternoon of eating .