Marvel at the very best in wildlife photography from around the globe
Winners of this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition capture a feasting fox, a hidden hippo and a polar bear forced to perform, among other creatures.
The Embrace
London's Natural History Museum announced the 2020 winners of its annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest in a livestreamed ceremony on Tuesday, naming Sergey Gorshkov Wildlife Photographer of the Year for this image, titled The Embrace, of an Amur tigress hugging an ancient Manchurian fir in the Russian Far East. Amur, or Siberian, tigers are only found in this region, and it took more than 11 months for the Russian photographer to capture this moment with hidden cameras.
The Fox That Got the Goose
Liina Heikkinen of Norway, age 13 at the time of this photograph, was named the Young Grand Title Winner for her dramatic image of a young fox refusing to share a barnacle goose. "A great natural history moment captured perfectly," said Shekar Dattatri, wildlife filmmaker and jury member.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London.
The Lucky Ones
Remember Netflix's hit Tiger King series? American photographer Steve Winter won The Wildlife Photojournalist Story Award for a photo story about tigers rescued from Joe Exotic's Oklahoma animal park. The tigers shown here, Clay, Daniel and Enzo, now will live out their lives with proper nutrition and veterinary care.
Paired-up Puffins
Young Evie Easterbrook was honored in the category for photographers aged 11-12 for this image of a pair of Atlantic puffins. She took the photograph while on a day trip with her family to the Farne Islands, off Northumberland, England.
The Rat Game
She's not sharing. UK photographer Matthew Maran has been photographing a group of foxes in North London for four years. He was highly commended in the mammals category for this image of a young fox who holds tight to a dead brown rat as her brother attempts to take it from her.
The Perfect Catch
Canadian teenager Hannah Vijayan competed in the category for photographers aged 15-17. Her image shows a brown bear pulling a salmon from the shallows of a river in Alaska's Katmai National Park.
The Spider's Supper
One creature's meal is another one's family. Spanish photographer Jaime Culebras captured this image of a wandering spider devouring the eggs of a glass frog, taken in Manduriacu Reserve, northwestern Ecuador. One by one, over the course of an hour, the spider ate all of the frog's eggs.
Treetop Douc
Son Tra Nature Reserve is Vietnam's last coastal rainforest and a stronghold for the endangered red-shanked douc langur, one of the world's most colorful primates. Arshdeep Singh of India, age 13, took this photo of one meeting the camera's gaze when he accompanied his father on a business trip to Vietnam.
Head Start
This large male gharial (also known as a fish-eating crocodile), allows his many offspring to ride on his back. Indian photographer Dhritiman Mukherjee took the photograph during breeding season in the National Chambal Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, northern India. This male was left in sole charge of his month-old babies, observes Mukherjee, but both sexes are known to care for their young.
Eye of the Drought
Jose Fragozo of Portugal snapped this portrait of a hippopotamus barely visible in a mud pool in Kenya's Maasai Mara National Reserve. Hippos spend the day submerged to keep their temperature constant and their sensitive skin out of the sun, and at night they emerge to graze on the floodplains.
Surprise!
Makoto Ando of Japan spent three hours hiding behind a tree on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, hoping this pair of Ural owls would pose or perform. Suddenly, a red squirrel appeared, and Ando captured an image of it bounding away.
Watching You Watching Them
Russian-American photographer Alex Badyaev won in the urban wildlife category for this image of the Cordilleran flycatcher, taken in Montana. He captured his shot as the female paused to check on her four nestlings, who were just 12 days old. That's Badyaev inside the cabin -- he hid his camera behind a large piece of tree bark and operated it remotely.
Late Delivery
American photographer Catherine Dobbins d'Alessio captured this image of an Atlantic puffin, with a beakful of krill, coming in to land on Grimsey Island, northern Iceland.
Show Business
American photographer Kirsten Luce took this image of a polar bear, wearing a wire muzzle, forced to perform with a traveling Russian circus in Kazan, Tatarstan. The polar bear is one of four females, reportedly captured in Russia's Franz Josef Land when two years old ("abandoned," according to the trainer) and still performing 18 years later.
Making Belugas Play Ball
These two belugas belong to a travellng dolphinarium, one of 12 known to travel in Russia today, and live in small saltwater tanks, traveling from town to town to perform. American photographer Kirsten Luce took the photo of them performing in an inflatable pool inside a circus tent in a carpark.