- Alan Taylor
- October 10, 2024
- 12 Photos
- In Focus
The 60th annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition attracted more than 59,000 entries from 117 countries, and just recently announced the winners. The owners and sponsors have kindly shared some of this year’s winning and honored images below. The museum’s website has many more images from this year and previous years. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. Captions were provided by the photographers and WPY organizers, and are lightly edited for style.
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A Tranquil Moment. Winner, Behavior: Mammals. Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod found this serene scene of a young toque macaque sleeping in an adult’s arms. Resting in a quiet place after a morning of photographing birds and leopards, Vinod soon realized he wasn’t alone. A troop of toque macaques was moving through the trees above. Vinod spotted this young monkey sleeping between feeds and used a telephoto lens to frame the peaceful moment. #
© Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
The Demolition Squad. Winner, Behavior: Invertebrates. Ingo Arndt documented the efficient dismemberment of a blue ground beetle by red wood ants. "Full of ant" is how Ingo described himself after lying next to the ants’ nest for just a few minutes. He watched as the red wood ants carved an already dead beetle into pieces small enough to fit through the entrance to their nest. #
© Ingo Arndt / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
On Watch. Winner, Animal Portraits. John E. Marriott framed a lynx resting, with its fully grown young sheltering from the cold wind behind it. John had been tracking this family group for almost a week, wearing snowshoes and carrying light camera gear to make his way through snowy forests. When fresh tracks led him to the group, he kept his distance to make sure he didn’t disturb them. #
© John E. Marriott / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Dolphins of the Forest. Winner, Photojournalist Story Award. Thomas Peschak documented the relationship between endangered Amazon river dolphins, also known as botos or pink river dolphins, and the people with whom they share their watery home. The Amazon river dolphin is one of two freshwater dolphin species living in the Amazon and Orinoco basins. Only this species has evolved to explore the seasonally flooded forest habitat. #
© Thomas P. Peschak / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Too Close for Comfort. Highly Commended, Behavior: Birds. Jack Zhi recorded the moment a falcon hooked its talons into a pelican’s pouch and tugged it skywards. Jack had been watching this peregrine falcon for a while, seeing it attack gulls, ospreys, and eagles that ventured too close to its nest on a nearby cliff ledge. #
© Jack Zhi / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Life Under Dead Wood. Winner, 15–17 Years. Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas rolled a log over to see the fruiting bodies of slime mold and a tiny springtail. Alexis worked fast to take this photograph, as springtails can jump many times their body length in a split second. He used a technique called focus stacking, where 36 images, each with a different area in focus, are combined. #
© Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Under the Waterline. Winner, Underwater. Matthew Smith carefully photographed a curious leopard seal beneath the Antarctic ice. He used a specially made extension he designed for the front of his underwater housing to get this split image. It was his first encounter with a leopard seal. The young seal made several close, curious passes. "When it looked straight into the lens barrel, I knew I had something good." #
© Matthew Smith / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Don’t Look Down. Highly Commended, Behavior: Mammals. Rick Beldegreen witnessed a group of puma cubs stalking their potential guanaco prey. He had been tracking a puma and its three cubs for several days when he saw this scene unfold. The guanacos shifted to higher ground after seeing the puma but didn’t notice the cubs, meters from their vantage point. #
© Rick Beldegreen / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
The Swarm of Life. Winner, Wetlands: The Bigger Picture. Shane Gross looked under the surface layer of lily pads as a mass of western toad tadpoles swam past. Shane snorkeled in the lake for several hours, through carpets of lily pads. This prevented any disturbance of the fine layers of silt and algae covering the lake bottom, which would have reduced visibility. #
© Shane Gross / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
The Scent Collector. Highly commended, Behavior: Invertebrates. Clay Bolt was dazzled by an orchid bee as it collected aromatic compounds from a leaf. Clay has spent many years photographing tropical bees. Using organic scents mixed by scientists to attract and survey butterflies and moths, he had seconds to photograph the bee as it stood collecting oils before it buzzed away. #
© Clay Bolt / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
As Clear as Crystal. Highly Commended, Under Water. Jason Gulley gazed through clear water at a manatee and a calf adrift among the eelgrass. He has photographed many manatee mother-and-calf pairs. The expression on this calf’s face and the bubbles trailing from its flippers, combined with the hopeful backstory, have made it one of Jason’s favorite images. #
© Jason Gulley / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Tiger in Town. Winner, Urban Wildlife. Robin Darius Conz watched a tiger on a hillside against the backdrop of a town where forests once grew. Robin was following this tiger as part of a documentary team filming the wildlife of the Western Ghats. On this day, he used a drone to watch the tiger explore its territory before it settled in this spot. #
© Robin Darius Conz / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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