The winners of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition have been announced, with American photographer Karine Aigner nabbing the Grand Title award for a photo of a ball of cactus bees.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London and was founded in 1965 by BBC Wildlife Magazine, then called Animals. The Natural History Museum joined forces in 1984 to create the competition as it is known today and it is now run and owned by the Natural History Museum, London. The competition gives two Grand Title Awards: Wildlife Photographer and Young Wildlife Photographer. The two winning images are selected from 19 category winners that this year included 38,575 entries from 93 countries. The photos were judged anonymously by the Natural History Museum’s panel of experts based on an image’s originality, narrative, technical excellence, and ethical practice. In August, the Natural History Museum shared some of the most highly praised photos for the year. However, they have named the winning images as well as the photographers who took them.
Karine Aigner, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, is the fifth woman in the competition’s 58-year history to earn the Grand Title Award. Her photo above, titled “The big buzz” which also won the category Behavior: Invertebrates, shows a remarkably close-up view of a ball of cactus bees. The males are all intent on mating with one female in the middle of the huddle, and the other two are the only ones left. Cactus bees face the same threats as other bee species. They are endangered by climate change and pesticides as well as habitat loss.
Karine Aigner gets close to the action as a group of bees compete to mate.
Using a macro lens, Karine captured the flurry of activity as a buzzing ball of cactus bees spun over the hot sand. After a few minutes, the pair at its centre – a male clinging to the only female in the scrum – flew away to mate. The world’s honeybees face threats from climate change, pesticides, and habitat loss. With 70% of bee species nesting underground, it is increasingly important that areas of natural soil are left undisturbed.
The Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title was granted to 16-year-old Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn from Thailand for his photo titled “The beauty of baleen” below, which depicts a Bryde’s whale as it surfaced close to his boat. The photo was the winner of the 15-17 Years old category as well.
Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn is intrigued by the contrasting colors and textures of a Bryde’s whale, which surfaces close by.
Following government tourism guidelines, the tour boat Katanyou was traveling on turned off its engine as the whale appeared close by. Katanyou was forced to hold his camera steady to get this picture as the boat rocked.
Bryde’s whales have up to 370 pairs of grey-colored plates of baleen growing inside their upper jaws. The plates are made of keratin, a protein that also forms human hair and nails, and are used to filter small prey from the ocean.
Below are the other winning images across the remaining categories with descriptions courtesy of Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. These photos as well as the winners of the Photojournalist Story Award, Rising Star Portfolio Award, and Portfolio Award can be pursued on the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition’s website.
10 Years and Under
Ekaterina Bee watches as two Alpine ibex spar for supremacy.
It was near the end of a spring day trip with her family that Ekaterina spotted the fight. Ekaterina saw the fight and began to exchange blows, while standing on each other’s hind legs as boxers.
In the early 1800s, following centuries of hunting, fewer than 100 Alpine ibex survived in the mountains on the Italy-France border. Successful conservation measures mean that, today, there are more than 50,000.
11-14 Years
Ismael Dominguez Gutierrez reveals a monochromatic scene as an osprey sits on a dead tree, waiting for the fog to lift.
When Ismael arrived at the wetland, he was disappointed not to be able to see beyond a few metres – and certainly he had no hope of glimpsing the grebes he wanted to photograph. But as the fog began to lift, it revealed the opportunity for this striking composition.
Ospreys are winter visitors to the province of Andalucia. These large, fish-eating birds are attracted to the reservoirs. The water is shallower and more open than most rivers and lakes.
Animals in their Environment
Daniel Mideros takes a poignant portrait of a disappearing habitat and its inhabitant.
Daniel set up camera traps along a wildlife corridor used to reach high-altitude plateaus. He positioned the cameras to show the disappearing natural landscape with the bear framed at the heart of the image.
These bears, found from western Venezuela to Bolivia, have suffered massive declines as the result of habitat fragmentation and loss. Around the world, as humans continue to build and farm, space for wildlife is increasingly squeezed out.
Animal Portraits
Jose Juan Hernandez Martinez witnesses the dizzying courtship display of a Canary Islands houbara.
Jose reached the courtship site of the houbara at night. By the light of the moon, he dug himself a low hide. He was able to see the full profile of the bird from this high vantage point.
A male Canary Islands houbara returns each year to his courtship site for impressive performances. Raising the plumes from the front of its neck and throwing its head back, it will race forward before circling back, resting just seconds before starting again.
Behavior: Birds
Nick Kanakis gains a glimpse into the secret life of wrens.
Nick spotted the grey-coloured wood wren while he was out foraging. He knew it would go into the forest and was willing to wait until he saw one. The little bird quickly hopped in the frame and pressed its ears to the ground, listening for tiny insects.
This prey-detecting technique is used by other birds, including the Eurasian blackbird. Grey-breasted wood wrens are ground-dwelling birds, often heard but not seen. They broadcast loud, melodious songs and rasping calls while hidden in the undergrowth.
Behavior: Mammals
Anand Nambiar captures an unusual perspective of a snow leopard charging a herd of Himalayan ibex towards a steep edge.
Anand viewed the snow leopard from a high vantage point in the ravine as it moved uphill towards the herd. It was perfectly suited for the environment – unlike Anand, who followed a fitness regime in preparation for the high altitude and cold temperatures.
Snow leopards live in some of the most extreme habitats in the world. They are now classed as vulnerable. Climate change, mining and the hunting of snow leopards as well their prey are all threats.
Behavior: Amphibians and Reptiles
Fernando Constantino Martinez Belmar waits in darkness as a Yucatan rat snake snaps up a bat.
Fernando watched the Yucatan rat-snake as it emerged from a crack with a red light, which is less sensitive than snakes. Fernando had only seconds to capture the image before the snake, a Yucatan rat snake, disappeared into the crevice along with its bat prey.
Every evening, thousands of bats depart the Cave of the Hanging Snakes for the night’s food. It is also when hungry rat snakes emerge, dangling from the roof to snatch their prey in mid-air.
Natural Artistry
Junji Takasago powers through altitude sickness to produce a dream-like scene.
Junji walked towards the group of Chilean Flamingos. Framing their choreography within the reflected clouds, he fought back his altitude sickness to capture this dream-like scene.
High in the Andes, Salar de Uyuni is the world’s largest salt pan. This is one of the largest lithium mines in Bolivia, which could threaten the survival of these flamingos. Batteries for laptops and phones are made from lithium. Recycling old electronics can reduce demand.
Oceans: The Bigger Picture
Richard Robinson captures a hopeful moment for a population of whales that has survived against all odds.
To capture the movement of the whales towards Richard’s boat, Richard used his polecam. Pushing his camera to its limits in the dark water, he was relieved to find the image pin-sharp and the moment of copulation crystallised in time.
When ready to mate, the female southern right whale rolls onto its back, requiring the male to reach its penis across the female’s body. Known by the Maori as tohora, the New Zealand population was hunted to near extinction in the 1800s, so every new calf offers new hope.
Plants and Fungi
Agorastos Papatsanis composes a fairy tale scene in the forests of Mount Olympus.
Agorastos was fascinated by the magic of fungi and fairy stories, so he created a beautiful scene. He waited for the sun to filter through the trees and light the water in the background, then used a wide-angle lens and flashes to highlight the morels’ labyrinthine forms.
Morels can be considered a culinary treasure in many countries because of their difficulty in cultivation, but they thrive naturally in certain forests.
Underwater
Tony Wu watches the electrifying reproductive dance of a giant sea star.
Tony had to overcome many obstacles as the water around him was filled with eggs and sperm from sea star spawning. Stuck in a small, enclosed bay with only a macro lens for photographing small subjects, he backed up to squeeze the undulating sea star into his field of view, in this galaxy-like scene.
The ‘dancing’ posture of spawning sea stars rising and swaying may help release eggs and sperm, or may help sweep the eggs and sperm into the currents where they fertilise together in the water.
Urban Wildlife
Dmitry Kokh presents this haunting scene of polar bears shrouded in fog at the long-deserted settlement on Kolyuchin.
Dmitry Kokh spotted the polar bears in the abandoned settlement’s buildings while on a boat, looking for shelter from the storm. As they explored every window and door, Dmitry used a low-noise drone to take a picture that conjures up a post-apocalyptic future.
In the Chukchi Sea area, normally alone bears migrate northwards in summer due to the shrinking sea ice that they depend upon for their hunting seals. If loose pack ice stays near the coast of this rocky island, bears sometimes investigate.
Wetlands – The Bigger Picture
Daniel Nunez uses a drone to capture the contrast between the forest and the algal growth on Lake Amatitlan.
Daniel took this photograph to raise awareness of the impact of contamination on Lake Amatitlan, which takes in around 75,000 tonnes of waste from Guatemala City every year. ‘It was a sunny day with perfect conditions,’ he says, ‘but it is a sad and shocking moment.’
Cyanobacteria flourishes in the presence of pollutants such as sewage and agricultural fertilisers forming algal blooms. Although efforts to restore Amatitlan’s wetland have begun, they are being thwarted by lack of funds and accusations of corruption.
Photojournalism
Brent Stirton shares the closing chapter of the story of a much-loved mountain gorilla. Brent captured Ndakasi as a 2-month-old when her troop were brutally murdered by the charcoal mafia. This was in response to threats made to park rangers. Here he memorialised her passing as she lay in the arms of her rescuer and caregiver of 13 years, ranger Andre Bauma.
As a result of unrelenting conservation efforts focusing on the daily protection of individual gorillas, mountain gorilla numbers have quadrupled to over 1,000 in the last 40 years.
Channel 4 News produced the below short documentary video about the competition with the note that this year, more than ever, the images reflect not just the aesthetic glory of their subjects, but the precariousness of their futures too. It includes interviews with some of the yaer’s entrants who also gave the network a preview of their work.
Image Credits: All photos are individually credited and provided courtesy of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, which is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.
