Looking for some eye-pleasing photos? Check out these highly commended images submitted to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is curated and produced by the Natural History Museum, London, and the photography exhibition will run from Friday 11 October 2024 to 29 June 2025.
This dramatic macro image of Dawson’s burrowing bees shows the males preparing to mate with the females.
The striped cat is a wild cat that lives in cold regions of Asia, such as Inner Mongolia. In this photo, the cat is shown with the setting moon behind it, having just caught a small bird (crushing it with its front paws).
In this still image, it may seem like the lions are arguing. Well, maybe they were, but they had mated several times before this photo was taken, and post-mating. Look closely and you can see salivating tentacles and flying insects between the big cats.
This reef shark had the misfortune of being caught by a fishing boat in the South Atlantic. The shark was caught twisting its body in an attempt to resist the hook. Approximately 80 million sharks are removed from the ocean each year. Currently, approximately 75% of shark species are threatened with extinction.
A drone shot captures the magnitude and sheer size of a Norwegian glacier. The image itself is a composite of 26 separate frames, capturing the glacier, which is part of Austfonda, Europe’s third-largest ice cap. Meltwater can be seen cascading from the top of the glacier, turning parts of the ocean a vibrant combination of blues and whites.
This video shows a colony of mussels clinging to a Portuguese coast to prevent them from being swept out to sea. At first glance, the invertebrates could be mistaken for a flock of crows or penguins from a distance.
Ah, I’d love to be a crabeater seal napping on the sea ice. That’s exactly what these two pinnipeds look like as they float in the frigid waters of the Weddell Sea. They look so peaceful. Dare I say, better than a desk job?
Two peacocks silhouetted against the light shining through the trees in Keoladeo National Park, Rajasthan. Everyone has their own tastes, but this was my favourite shot from the highly acclaimed selection.
In this photo, two owl chicks are perched on a tree branch in a German park. One chick’s eyes are nearly closed, while the other leans towards its partner and looks curiously at the photographer’s camera.
In this photo, a jackdaw has some stones in its beak. No, it’s not for digestion; the bird is carrying them to its nest. According to the contest announcement, the photographer also witnessed the bird carrying some deer hair back to its nest.
A dead deer is seen lying, covered in frost, on the forest floor near Susanville, California.
A David Bowie spider between two branches in Malaysia. Named after the late British pop star by an arachnologist and Bowie enthusiast, the spider’s head pattern resembles one of Bowie’s makeup routines.
In this dynamic photo, an ermine leaps and bounds across the snow. The ermine’s motivations aren’t clear in this photo taken in France. The behavior has been dubbed a “dance” by scientists, but could have many causes, ranging from a parasitic infection to a way to confuse prey.
