The most popular wildlife photos of the year include a moose stare-down, a shark smorgasbord, and a lynx playdate

Photographer Ami Vitale titled this image "The Last Goodbye." It shows caretaker Joseph Wachira comforting Sudan, the planet's last male northern white rhino. The photo was taken moments before Sudan died due to age-related complications at the Ol Pejeta Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. 

Flying-foxes are bats native to Australia's southeast forests. They were recently listed as vulnerable to extinction due to habitat loss and heat-related mass die-offs — problems exacerbated by the continent-wide bush fires that occurred in January. 

At the Saint Petersburg State Circus, Ibragimov performs a daily act with three Siberian brown bears. The bears are chained by their necks to a wall when they are young to strengthen their leg muscles so that they learn how to walk on two feet, according to photographer Kristen Luce.

According to photographer Pallivi Prasad Laveti, cat-like civets are often captured and kept in cages at Kopi Luwak coffee production plants. The coffee is made from beans that are partially digested and then pooped out by civets; trapped civets are often force-fed a diet of only coffee beans.

Britta Jaschinski snapped a photo of a confiscated zebra head at a US border checkpoint. Most likely, Jaschinski said, the hunters couldn't show proof they killed this zebra legally.

Iberian lynx are endangered and can become casualties of car accidents in places like Jaen, Spain as they try and expand their habitats. However, tunnels under highways and fencing improvements have decreased lynx mortality on the roads.

The photo shows the two happily playing in a hayloft. Their mother, Odrina, and grandmother, Mesta, were born in the same hayloft, too.

Photographer Oliver Richter enjoys watching the European beavers by his home in Grimma, Germany, near Saxony. This image shows his backyard critters' favorite feeding place. 

The weather in the Scottish highlands can get chilly, so Neil Anderson put out a box in a pine tree near his home.

Two squirrels chose to make the box their home, and Anderson snapped a picture of them.

This female mountain hare balled up tight to escape the chill from 60 mph winds near Tomatin. Photographer Andy Parkinson had to wait almost an hour in the freezing cold to capture the shot. 

He was able to capture an image of this six-month-old snow leopard cub among the rocks after it stopped following its mother. 

Wim van den Heever snapped a portrait of this male lion atop a large granite rock on the plains of the Serengeti in Tanzania. 

Takins are also known as goat antelope. They can leap nimbly from rock to rock and are well-equipped to deal with the high altitude and cold of the Himalayas.

At the bottom of the Lembeh Strait in Sulawesi, this octopus was carrying its house made of shells when Sam Sloss took its picture. Some coconut octopuses use clam shells, coconuts, and even glass bottles to take shelter or conceal themselves from predators and prey.

Japanese warbonnets like this one, photographed off the coast of Japan, often swim right up to divers. The fish use sharp-edged jaws to snap up and swallow sea cucumbers and gastropods. 

This photo shows two sharks munching on grouper fish flesh in French Polynesia. These predators hunt in packs but do not share their prey. 

According to photographer Petri Pietiläinen, this bear had a hard time making its way down the steep cliff to reach the geese nesting below.

Some geese and their chicks jumped off the cliff, but the bear fed on the animals that remained behind.

Long-nosed dragons lounge on the wire mesh outside mining workshops in western Australia's Great Sandy Desert. That way, the lizards can easily catch some sun and munch on the insects attracted to the workshops' artificial lights. 

The owls dig holes into the yards of luxury resorts and multimillion-dollar homes, where they hunt for insects and lizards. 

These owls live in the urban sprawl of Ontario, California. Photographer Andrew Lee had to wait several days to get the entire family — two parents and their eight chicks — on film.