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.
BEHIND the doors of this building, with its stacks of mattresses and discarded remains of wheelchairs, lies another victim of austerity cuts .
The beds are consumed by moss instead of customers at this abandoned hotel .
DIVING boffins fired harpoons into 30-foot-long whale sharks in a bid to put the sea-beasts on Google Maps .
THIS incredible shimmer of silver fish mirrors the image of that of an underwater tornado .
LYING back in the snow, these two polar bears share a cuddle as they call time out on playtime .
This frozen lighthouse in Michigan could easily be mistaken for a still from the snow swept disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow .
SOARING through the air, a hungry white-tailed kite prepares to snatch a vole from his mother’s claws .
Meet the human CCTV: a PCSO with a memory for faces so sharp he has apprehended more than 130 suspects in the last year alone with his eagle eyed talents .
These are the faces of orphans suffering from the horrifying effects of chemical warfare .
HOPPING onto the scales, these adorable baby Humboldt penguins are ready for their first weigh-in .
DIVING down at a speed of 75mph, this is the moment a hungry osprey caught his prey .
THIS is the fascinating abandoned house, complete with mystery portraits and homely items, that has been dubbed - crooked cottage .