13 memorable and metal Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners

13 memorable and metal Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners

In a village where forests once grew, a tiger lounges on a grassy hillside. India’s Western Ghats has a stable population of the majestic big cats, but nearby development has impacted the area’s overall tiger population. Using a drone, Robin Darius Conz captured a compelling image that illustrates this ongoing clash between humans and wildlife. The photo, titled “Tiger in Town” (below), took home the top prize in the Urban Wildlife category at the 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

a tiger relaxes on a hillside with buildings from a small village in the background

Canadian Marine Conservation Photojournalist Shane Gross was awarded overall Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 for his dazzling underwater image (below) showing hundreds of western toad tadpoles swimming through Cedar Lake on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Gross secured top honors amongst a record-setting 59,228 entries from 117 countries and territories.

(To see images in their full, stunning glory, click to expand.)

Western toad (Anaxyrus boreas) tadpoles among lily pads in a lake on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Now in its 60th year, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. One hundred of the winning and commended photographs are now on display at the museum through June 29, 2025.

a hawk rips apart a squirrel on a tree branch

a pink dolphin swims reddish tinted water

a lynx stretches on a snowy hill

a yellow anaconda wraps itself around the snout of a caiman

a lynx stares straight into the camera as it stands in front of its young in the snow

A reintroduced Thalka, (the word for bilby used by the Arabana people), foraging in an ecological safe haven, Arid Recovery, in the remote deserts of South Australia and photographed in 2022. Here the thalka/bilby continues to hold deep significance to Australian Indigenous groups, as a totem animal and plays a part of many Dreamtime stories. Their songs and stories run deep across the arid zones. In some areas, Thalka/Bilby were hunted as food and their tails used as decoration. Feral cats have decimated thalka//bilby populations across Australia and are now found in some of the most remote deserts where cats can not cope with the heat or heavily managed reserves like Arid Recovery where the species has been reintroduced. Some of the last people to come out of the desert wore bilby and cat tails as decoration on belts. For a short period there was a time where cats and bilbys were both hunted. At Arid Recovery, scientists and indigenous ranger groups participate in two-way science, showing each how to manage the land and allowing threatened species and culture to thrive.

a swarm of red wood ants dismember a blue ground beetle

Along with a small team of photographers, I sailed from Argentina to the Antarctic peninsula onboard a 60ft yacht under wind power. Travelling by yacht meant we could ensure more intimate encounters with wildlife whilst also minimising our carbon footprint and impact on this environment. As we sailed into Paradise Harbour on the Antarctic Peninsula, this young leopard seal approached our small sailing boat. Bold and curious by nature, it circled around us as if wanting to learn more about what we were doing in its domain. This gave me time to don my dry suit and quietly slip into the water with my camera. This was my first personal encounter with a leopard seal and I didn’t want to push any boundaries, so I slowly swam over to a small chunk of floating ice and waited to see what would happen next. Soon the young leopard seal approached me out of curiosity and began to display investigative behaviour. It seemed very relaxed with my presence, making several passes, so I began to shoot some frames. I had to work quickly as it was late in the day and light was fading fast. Using a neutral density graduated filter on my lens I managed to retain drama in the sky whilst being able to light the seal with a flash from one side. Krill and penguins make up for most of the leopard seals natural diet. However, pressure from retreating sea ice and warming waters around the Antarctic peninsula, pollution and overfishing means that krill and penguin numbers are both in decline. 2022 saw a record low in Antarctic sea ice and led to the catastrophic failure of Emperor penguin breeding colonies due to loss of sea ice. Taken 15th Feb 2023

Springtails and slime molds are two of my favorite macro photography subjects, so it's always fun to get a chance to include both in one photo. I found these under a log in my local forest in Berlin, Germany and was able to get a focus stack of 36 images before the springtail started moving.

Worryingly, the diet of flesh-footed shearwaters that nest on Lord Howe Island is increasingly seasoned with plastic waste drifting in the oceans. By measuring the impact and exposing the of the problem, researchers with the Adrift Lab aim to raise awareness and advocate for action to address overconsumption, poor waste management and pollution. In 2023, they retreived the greatest number of plastic peices ever recorded from this individual (number = 403 pieces; weight = 41.9grams).

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