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.
LEAPING through the air this determined little mouse is on a mission for food .
An Italian photographer travelled to northern India where he visited poverty stricken suburbs and captured ordinary people in a series of intimate and expressive portraits .
Armed with a snorkel, flippers and her skimpy bikini, an intrepid female free diver swims alongside an array of reef sharks .
GIANT garden sculptures don't beat about the bush .
SNUGGLED up in the hay away from the elements, this adorable hoglet has sought solace with a familiar friend .
An osprey soars through the air at 30 miles per hour before swooping down to catch its prey from a lake .
WITH HIS PAW covering his mouth, this cheeky cub looks amused by something .
THIS alien-like bug would look more at home in outer-space but it can actually be found wriggling around here on Earth .
SOARING through the air, a hungry white-tailed kite prepares to snatch a vole from his mother’s claws .
HOTSPOT MEDIA - BACK TO THE FUTURE WITH AR' KID: A POSTAL SORTER has perfected the art of time travel by delivering images that are from the past .
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 .
STRETCHING his little legs in the air, a smiley leaf-tailed gecko breaks free from his old, scaly skin .