Wild animals generally avoid contact with humans, so most of us will spend our lives appreciating them from afar.
That's why wildlife photographers are so well-respected; they dedicate their time and talent -- often putting their safety at risk -- to getting breathtaking shots of these animals in their natural habitats. Unfortunately, droughts, rising sea levels and the disappearance of sea ice driven by climate change are destroying these habitats.
For this week's Mashable Photo Challenge, we asked readers to share photos of wild animals -- whether they were in an African safari or in their own backyard. Award-winning UK-based wildlife photographer William Burrard-Lucas was our guest host.
"It was great to see a wide variety of subjects submitted, from urban wildlife to African animals and from large animals to tiny macro subjects," he said. "I was pleased to see many entries where the photograph had attempted to capture something a bit different."
Scroll through Burrard-Lucas' featured picks, below, and check out the rest of the submissions, here.
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