Winner of the Natural History Museum’s prestigious award Wildlife Photographer of the Year The contest has just been announced. This year’s winner is Canadian marine conservation photojournalist Shane Gross, who won for his photo of the magical underwater world of a toad tadpole.
Chair of the judging panel, Kathy Moran, said all the judges were “fascinated by the combination of light, energy, and the connection between the environment and the tadpoles.”
Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas won the 2024 Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for her close-up image of a slime mold fruiting body with a tiny springtail.
Now in its 60th year, the competition’s latest exhibit spotlights past grand title winners throughout its history and features photographs, trophies, and high-tech camera displays that encapsulate the competition’s 60 years of revealing nature’s stories. Lights will be included.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London, of Wildlife Photographer of the YearAn exhibition featuring all 100 award-winning works will be held on October 11, 2024. natural history museum in London, England.
Behavioral Category Winner: Invertebrate Category
A swarm of red wood ants (Formica rufa) set about dismantling the blue ground beetle. Much of the red wood ant’s nutrition comes from honeydew secreted by aphids, but it also needs protein. They can kill insects and other invertebrates much larger than themselves with overwhelming force. Photographed in Hesse, Germany. Photo credit: Ingo Arndt/WPOTY
Winner in the animal portrait category
A lynx shelters from the cold wind on its back and rests with its adult lynx calf in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Lynx numbers typically reflect natural population fluctuations in their primary prey, the snowshoe hare. As climate change reduces snow cover, other predators have more opportunities to hunt hares. As a result, hare populations may decline, impacting lynx populations. Photo by John Marriott/WPOTY
Behavior Category Winner: Bird Category
A peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) practices hunting with butterflies on its nest on a sea cliff in Los Angeles, USA. Tests have shown that when the young peregrine falcon becomes an adult, it can duck and fall onto prey from above at speeds of more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) per hour. Photo by Jack Zhi/WPOTY
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Winner of Animal Environment Category
A lynx stretches in the evening sunlight. A survey conducted in 2013 estimated the total population of lynx in Russia to be around 22,500, with the population in Russia’s Far East at 5,890. Photographed in the Lazovsky district of Primorye, Russia. Photo credit: Igor Metelskiy/WPOTY
Rising Star Portfolio Award Winner
There are many tube snout (Aulorhychus flavidus) eggs on display, carefully placed in a giant kelp ditch. As the seasons change in Monterey Bay in the United States, all the little signs of new life appear. In the darkness of the nutrient-rich summer waters, ruby eggs and golden kelp look like carefully arranged jewelry. Photo provided by: Stage Ono/WPOTY
Winner of the 10 and under category
This young rock grouper (Saxicola robicola) has not yet developed its adult call. Its cry sounds like two stones slamming together. Stonechat tends to prefer open habitats and usually perches on fences. Photographed near the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park in Cadiz, Spain. Photo credit: Alberto Roman Gomez/WPOTY
Winner of Urban Wildlife Category
A tiger rests on a hillside, with the once forested town in the background. The protected areas of the Western Ghats, where tigers are closely monitored, are among the most biodiverse landscapes in India and have stable tiger populations. Outside these areas, development has led to conflicts between humans and wildlife, and tiger occupancy has declined. Photographed in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India. Photo by Robin Darius/WPOTY
15-17 Category Winner
A type of hexapod known as a collembola investigates a nearby slime mold. The photographer discovered them under a log in a local forest in Berlin, Germany, and was able to obtain a focused stack of 36 images before the springtail began to move. Hexapods are a type of arthropod that was once thought to be an insect. Photo credit: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas/WPOTY
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The amazing abilities of slime molds
Underwater category winner
A young leopard seal approaches a photographer on a small sailboat in Paradise Harbor, Antarctica. Leopard seals are naturally bold and inquisitive, with krill and penguins making up a large part of their natural diet. But both krill and penguin numbers are in decline due to pressure from receding sea ice and rising ocean temperatures around the Antarctic Peninsula, pollution, and overfishing. In 2022, Antarctic sea ice will be at a record low, causing a catastrophic failure of emperor penguin breeding colonies. Photo by Matthew Smith/WPOTY
Photojournalist Story Award Winner
Forensic experts from the Metropolitan Police take fingerprints from tusks seized at Britain’s Heathrow Airport. Fingerprints usually cannot be removed from ivory and the odontogenic pores absorb them within 1-2 days. However, with the new, chemically tailored, finer magnetic powder, less fingerprint sweat material is required, and the powder can still adhere to 28-day-old residue, although the first 7 days are still the best. Maintaining quality. The powder can be colored for use on dark materials such as rhino horn. Photo by Britta Jaschinski/WOPTY
Behavioral Winner: Amphibians and Reptiles
A yellow anaconda (Eunectes notaeus) wraps around the snout of a Caiman yacare. Caimans are voracious eaters and even eat snakes. On the contrary, as the anaconda grows, its diet will include reptiles, so it is difficult to determine who is the attacker here. On the snake’s back are two blood-sucking horseflies, which are known to prey on reptiles. Photographed on the Transpantaneira highway in Mato Grosso state, Brazil. Photo by Karine Aigner/WPOTY
Behavior Category Winner: Mammal Category
This baby monkey (Macaca sinica) was so relaxed drinking milk from its mother that it fell asleep. Because crested monkeys easily adapt to human food, the encroachment of plantations into their habitat has led to increased incidents of shooting, trapping, and poisoning by farmers trying to preserve their crops. Photographed in Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Photo credit: Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod/WPOTY
Oceans: The Bigger Picture Winner
A mosaic made from 403 pieces of plastic found inside the digestive tract of a dead blue shearwater. The diet of the meat-reed shearwaters that nest on Lord Howe Island is increasingly flavored with plastic waste floating in the ocean. By measuring impacts and highlighting problems, Adrift Lab researchers aim to raise awareness and advocate for action to address overconsumption, poor waste management, and pollution. Photo by Justin Gilligan/WPOTY
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Photojournalist Story Award Winner
The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) is one of two freshwater dolphin species that live in the Amazon and Orinoco basins. Only this species evolved to explore seasonally flooded forest habitats. Photo by Thomas Peschak/WPOTY
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Wetland Category Winner: Big Picture Category and Overall Winner
A tadpole of a western toad (Anaxylus boreas) among lily pads in a lake on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Toad tadpoles swim up from the safe depths of a lake, trying to avoid predators and reach shallow waters where they can feed. Tadpoles begin to develop into toads 4 to 12 weeks after hatching. An estimated 99 percent do not survive to adulthood. Photo by Shane Goss/WPOTY
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2023 Wildlife Photographer of the Year, People’s Choice Winner
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