Join Alex as she shares some of her favourite photographs from the exhibition
Powerful wildlife photography focuses our attention on the beauty and fragility of the natural world.
On loan from the Natural History of Museum in London, these extraordinary images have been selected because they allow us to witness unique moments, encounter the diversity of life on Earth and reflect on humanity's role in its future.
Grand Title Winners
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 Grand Title Winner
The Moment
Yonqing Bao, China
This Himalayan marmot was not long out of hibernation when it was surprised by a mother Tibetan fox with three hungry cubs to feed. With lightning-fast reactions, Yongqing captured the attack – the power of the predator baring her teeth, the terror of her prey, the intensity of life and death written on their faces.
As one of the highest-altitude-dwelling mammals, the Himalayan marmot relies on its thick fur for survival through the extreme cold. In the heart of winter it spends more than six months in an exceptionally deep burrow with the rest of its colony. Marmots usually do not resurface until spring, an opportunity not to be missed by hungry predators.
Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019
Night Glow
Cruz Erdmann, New Zealand
Cruz was on a night dive with his dad when he saw a pair of bigfin reef squid in the shallow water. One swam off but Cruz quickly adjusted his camera and strobe settings, knowing that the opportunity was too good to miss. He shot four frames of the remaining squid before it too disappeared into the inky blackness.
Bigfin reef squid are masters of camouflage, changing their body colour and pattern using their reflective and pigmented skin cells. They also alter their appearance to help them communicate. During courtship, males and females display complex patterns to indicate their willingness to mate.
Behaviours
From the intense battle for survival to securing food an a mate, animals display tremendous resourcefulness. Each image demonstrates a behaviour that enhances our understanding of an animal’s life in the wild.
Winner (Amphibians and Reptiles): Pondworld by Manuel Plaickner, Italy. Every spring for more than a decade, Manuel followed the mass migration of common frogs. He took this image by immersing himself and his camera in a large pond where hundreds of frogs had gathered. There he waited until the moment arrived for the picture he had in mind – lingering frogs, harmonious colours, soft, natural light and dreamy reflections.
Highly Commended: A Bite to Eat by Jaime Culebras, Spain. Jaime was looking for frogs when he suddenly spotted a cat-eyed snake, a species with a particular liking for amphibians. Upon grasping its victim in its jaws, the snake released low-level toxic venom to subdue it. The brutal reality of the situation is captured in the eyes of the trapped hourglass tree frog.
Winner (Birds): Land of the Eagle by Audun Rikardsen, Norway. Audun carefully positioned this tree branch, hoping it would make a perfect lookout for a golden eagle. He set up a camera trap and occasionally left road-kill carrion nearby. Very gradually, over the next three years, this eagle started to use the branch to survey its coastal realm. Audun captured its power as it came in to land, talons outstretched.
Highly Commended: Cool Drink by Diana Rebman, USA. Despite the bitterly cold temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius, Diana spent hours mesmerised by what she described as the ‘well-choreographed dance’ of a group of long-tailed tits taking turns to peck at an icicle. With the fast movement of the birds and her fingers feeling like blocks of ice, capturing their behaviour was no easy task.
Winner (Invertebrates): The Architectural Army by Daniel Kronauer, Germany/USA. By day this colony of army ants raided their surrounds, mostly hunting other ant species. At dusk they moved on, travelling up to 400 metres before building a nest for the night. Positioning his camera on the forest floor, Daniel was wary of upsetting thousands of venomous army ants. ‘You mustn’t breathe in their direction,’ he says.
Highly Commended: The Hair-net Cocoon by Minghui Yuan, China. With his face pressed against a wall, Minghui framed this Cyana moth pupa hanging in its remarkable cage-like cocoon. Such delicate structures can be hard to spot but this one stood out against its backdrop in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden.
Joint Winner (Mammals): The Equal Match by Ingo Arndt, Germany. The guanaco turns, terrified, his last mouthful of grass flying in the wind as a female puma attacks. For Ingo, this is the culmination of months of work tracking wild pumas on foot, enduring extreme cold and biting winds. After an intense four-second struggle, the guanaco escaped with his life, leaving the puma to go hungry.
Highly Commended: Last Gasp by Adrian Hirschi, Switzerland. A newborn hippo, just days old, was keeping close to its mother when a large bull hippo suddenly made a beeline for them. He chased the mother away and went after the calf, seizing it violently in his huge gape, clearly intent on killing it. ‘All the while, the distraught mother looked on helplessly,’ says Adrian.
Highly Commended: If Penguins Could Fly by Eduardo del Álamo, Spain. A gentoo penguin flees for its life as a leopard seal bursts out of the water. Eduardo was expecting it. He had noticed the penguin resting on a fragment of broken ice and watched the seal swim back and forth. ‘Moments later, the seal flew out of the water, mouth open,’ he says.
Highly Commended: Big Cat and Dog Spat by Peter Haygarth, UK. In a rare encounter, a lone male cheetah is set upon by a pack of African wild dogs. At first the dogs were wary, but as the rest of their 12-strong pack arrived their confidence grew. They began to encircle and probe the big cat, chirping with excitement. It was all over a few minutes later, when the cheetah fled.
Animals have adapted to survive in almost every place on Earth, from snowy deserts to bustling cities to the deep sea. Together, these images showcase this diversity and uniqueness, each one exploring an animal’s intricate relationship with its habitat.
Winner (Animals in their Environment): Snow-Plateau Nomads by Shangzhen Fan, China. A small herd of male chirus makes its way to the relative warmth of the Kumukuli Desert. These nimble antelopes are high-altitude specialists found only on the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. For years, Shangzhen made the long, arduous journey to observe them there. Here he drew the contrasting elements of snow and sand together.
Winner (Underwater): The Garden of Eels by David Doubilet. A swaying colony of garden eels vanished into their burrows as soon as David arrived at this underwater scene. So as not to disturb them again, he set up his camera and hid behind a shipwreck where he could trigger the system remotely. It was several hours before the eels re-emerged and several days before David got his perfect shot.
Highly Commended (Underwater): Blackwater Light Trails by Songda Cai, China. On a night dive over deep water, Songda captured the luminous fin rays – or filaments – of a juvenile African pompano. Curious, he followed the fish as it glided through the water. Photographing its side profile, Songda used a slow shutter speed to capture the motion and beauty of its colourful and extravagant trailing filaments.
Highly Commended (Underwater): Jelly Baby by Fabien Michenet, France A young jackfish peers out from inside a small jellyfish. Fabien had often seen these species together during his hundreds of night dives. Diving in complete darkness is his speciality. ‘There is so much activity beneath the surface at night,’ he says. Drifting in the current with his small subjects, Fabien found the perfect angle to capture the fish’s stare.
Winner (Urban Wildlife): The Rat Pack by Charlie Hamilton James. On Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan, brown rats scamper between their home under a tree grille and a pile of rubbish bags full of food waste. Lighting his shot to blend with the glow of the street lights and operating his kit remotely, Charlie captured this intimate, street-level view.
Highly Commended (Urban Wildlife): Lucky Break by Jason Bantle, Canada. A raccoon poked her head out of an abandoned car and paused to assess her surroundings, allowing Jason just enough time to use a long exposure in the twilight. The back seat was an ideal den for the raccoon and her five cubs as the only entrance – through a blunt-edged hole in the glass – was large enough for her but too small for predators such as coyotes.
Illustrating how the graphic nature and tonal range of black and white photography can simplify the elements, emphasise the form, create drama or add an emotional element to an image, whatever the subject.
Winner: Snow Exposure by Max Waugh, USA. In a winter whiteout a lone American bison briefly lifts its head from its endless foraging. Max purposefully slowed his shutter speed to blur the snow and ‘paint lines across the silhouette of the bison’. Slightly overexposing the shot and converting it to black and white accentuated the simplicity of the wintry scene.
Highly Commended: Circle of Life by Alex Mustard, UK. In the crystal-clear waters of the Red Sea a school of bigeye trevally formed a circular shoal a few metres from Alexander’s lens. For 20 years Alexander had been coming to photograph the summer spawning of reef fish. ‘A big lure that sees me return each year is that I always see something new,’ he says.
Highly Commended: Sleeping like a Weddell, by Ralf Schneider, Germany. Hugging its flippers tight into its body, the Weddell seal closed its eyes and appeared to fall into a deep, contented sleep. Shooting from a boat, Ralph tightly framed the sleeping seal against the ice-covered background, using the white backdrop and soft light from the cloudy weather to mimic the effect of a studio portrait.
Revealing the personality of an individual or an intimate group of animals in a thought-provoking or memorable way.
Winner: Face of Deception by Ripan Biswas, India. Ripan was photographing a red weaver ant colony when he spotted this slightly strange individual. It may have the face of an ant but its eight legs give it away – on closer inspection Ripan discovered that it was an ant-mimicking crab spider. By reverse mounting his lens, Ripan converted it to a macro capable of taking extreme close-ups.
Highly Commended: Portrait of the Spanish Tarantula by Javier Aznar González de Rueda, Spain. Javier crouched down and the gleaming black eyes of a Spanish tarantula peeped out from the entrance to her lair. Her appearance was fleeting, but just long enough for Javier to capture this handsome portrait, which he hopes will ‘change some people’s minds about these spiders’.
Photography has a unique ability to spark conservation, debate and even action. We hope this year's exhibition will empower people to think differently about our planet and our critical role in its future.
Explore more images from the exhibition
'The Freshwater Forest', Michel Roggo, Switzerland. Michel was diving near the water’s surface when he spotted a huge pike disappearing into the mass of aquatic plants below, called watermilfoil. He followed for a closer look and noticed that some supported thick clusters of zebra mussels. Glancing up he found himself immersed in an ‘underwater jungle with an endless view’.
'Snow Landing', Jérémie Villet, France. With outstretched wings and intense eyes fixed on its prey, a bald eagle lands in fresh snow on a riverbank. Jérémie spent a week observing the behaviour of these birds from his hide. Spotting this one swooping down to catch salmon from the icy water below, he was well-positioned to capture this portrait.
'Another Barred Migrant', Alejandro Prieto, Mexico. It took Alejandro two years to take the perfect photo of a male jaguar. Under a luminous, star-studded Arizona sky, he projects it onto a section of the US–Mexico border fence to symbolise ‘the jaguar’s past and its possible future presence in the United States. If the wall is built,’ he says, ‘it will destroy the jaguar population in the United States.’
'The Art of Conception', Stefan Christmann, Germany. Stefan was lucky to find this isolated couple courting – many pairs had already mated by the time conditions allowed him to access this remote spot. The serene backdrop of sea ice and a distant stranded iceberg softly lit by the setting sun gives no hint that the Antarctic winter is about to intensify.
'Canopy Hang-out', Carlos Pérez Naval, Spain. Carlos photographed this brown-throated three-toed sloth for several days as it rested, ate and slept in a cecropia tree. On this particular morning, with the forest cloaked in a thick fog, Carlos chose to switch cameras and move to a lower level of the observation tower. This shot, he feels, ‘shows the essence of the forest’.
'The Climbing Dead', Frank Deschandol, France. When Frank spotted this bizarre-looking weevil one night, he knew it would still be there in the morning. Though clinging to a fern stem, the beetle was dead. It had been infected and killed by a parasitic fungus. The next day, Frank isolated the colourful stalks of the fungus against a soft background, savouring the symmetry of the composition.
'Creation', Luis Vilariño, Spain. Red-hot lava from Kīlauea volcano instantly boils the cool Pacific Ocean where they meet at the Hawaiian coast. As Luis’s helicopter flew along the coastline a sudden change in wind direction parted the plumes of steam to reveal the fiery river. Quickly framing his shot through the helicopter’s open door, he captured the tumultuous creation of new land.
'Early Riser', Riccardo Marchegiani, Italy. Riccardo could not believe his luck when this female gelada walked along the cliff edge where he had been waiting since before sunrise. Keeping a respectful distance, Riccardo composed his shot using a low flash to highlight the gelada’s light brown fur against the distant mountains. The beam also caught the eye of the inquisitive infant clinging to her belly.
'Humming Surprise', Thomas Easterbrook, UK. A curious sound drew Thomas to this hummingbird hawkmoth. He watched as it hovered in front of each salvia flower and drank the nectar using its long, straw-like proboscis. Framing the fast-moving insect was challenging, but Thomas was pleased with how he captured the stillness of the moth’s body and the blur of its wings.
'Touching Trust', Thomas P Peschak, Germany/South Africa. A curious young grey whale speckled with barnacles and scarred from scooping prey off the seabed approaches a pair of hands reaching down. In San Ignacio Lagoon, grey whales actively seek contact with people to get a head scratch. For Thomas, photographing a whale that sought out human contact was a first.
Love Wildlife Photographer of the Year? Learn more about the winning photographs, go wild with fun-filled kids' craft activities, and browse our range of books and giftware relating to the exhibition.
