The 15 most mind-blowing wildlife pictures of 2024
The 15 most mind-blowing wildlife pictures of 2024
See all of the amazing images from this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
Save 40% when you subscribe to BBC Science Focus Magazine!This baby toque macaque was happily suckling milk from it's mother. It was so relaxed it almost fell asleep. I saw this baby macaque at Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka, in April this year. I used Nikon 600mm prime lens and nikon D 500 camera to capture this moment hand held. I took extra care not to make any undue noises which could disturb this bond. Photo by Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod/WPOTY
The winners of the Natural History Museum’s prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition have just been announced. This year's winner is Canadian marine conservation photojournalist Shane Gross for his image of a magical underwater world of western toad tadpoles.
Kathy Moran, chair of the jury said that all of the judges had been "captivated by the mix of light, energy and connectivity between the environment and the tadpoles".
Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas was awarded Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 for his up-close image depicting the fruiting bodies of a slime mould with a tiny springtail.
Now in its 60th year, the competition's latest exhibition will spotlight past Grand Title winners across its history, and will include photographs, trophies, and camera technology highlights that encapsulate the competition’s sixty years of revealing nature’s stories.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. The Wildlife Photographer of the Yearexhibition, featuring all 100 awarded images, will open on 11 October 2024, at the Natural History Museum in London, United Kingdom.
Winner of Behaviour: Invertebrates category
A large group of red wood ants (Formica rufa) set to work on the dismemberment of a blue ground beetle. Much of the red wood ants’ nourishment comes from honeydew secreted by aphids, but they also need protein. They are capable of killing insects and other invertebrates much larger than themselves through sheer strength in numbers. Photographed in Hessen, Germany. Photo by Ingo Arndt/WPOTY
Winner of Animal Portraits category
A lynx rests with its fully grown young sheltering from the cold wind behind it, in Yukon, Canada. Lynx numbers usually reflect the natural population fluctuations of their main prey species, the snowshoe hare. With climate change reducing snow coverage, this gives other predators more opportunities to hunt the hares. As a result, hare populations may decline, in turn affecting the lynx population. Photo by John Marriott/WPOTY
Winner of Behaviour: Birds category
A peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) practises its hunting skills on a butterfly, above its sea-cliff nest in Los Angeles, USA. Should this young peregrine falcon make it to adulthood, tests have shown it will be capable of stooping or dropping down on its prey from above, at speeds of more than 300 kph (186 mph). Photo by Jack Zhi/WPOTY
A lynx stretching in the early evening sunshine. A survey carried out in 2013 estimated the entire Russian lynx population was around 22,500 individuals, with numbers for the Russian Far East at 5,890. Photographed in the Lazovsky District, Primorsky Krai, Russia. Photo by Igor Metelskiy/WPOTY
Winner of the Rising Star Portfolio Award
A clutch of tubesnout (Aulorhychus flavidus) eggs on display, carefully nestled in the crooks of giant kelp. With the changing seasons of Monterey Bay, USA, come all the little signs of new life. The ruby-red eggs and golden kelp in the darkness of the nutrient-rich summer water take on the appearance of carefully arranged jewellery. Photo by Stage Ono/WPOTY
Winner of the 10 and Under category
This young stonechat (Saxicola rubicola) has not yet developed its adult call, which sounds like two stones tapped together. Stonechats tend to prefer open habitats and typically perch on fences. Photographed near the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, Cádiz, Spain. Photo by Alberto Román Gómez/WPOTY
Winner of Urban Wildlife category
A tiger rests on a hillside against the backdrop of a town where forests once grew. The protected areas in the Western Ghats, where tigers are carefully monitored, are some of the most biodiverse landscapes in India and have a stable population of tigers. Outside these areas, where development has created conflict between humans and wildlife, tiger occupancy has declined. Photographed at Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India. Photo by Robin Darius/WPOTY
Winner of the 15-17 category
A kind of hexapod known as a Springtail is investigating a nearby slime mould. The photographer found these under a log in their local forest in Berlin, Germany, and was able to get a focus stack of 36 images before the springtail started moving. A hexapod is a type of arthropod that was once considered an insect. Photo by Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas/WPOTY
A young leopard seal approaches the photographer whilst on a small sailing boat in Paradise Harbour, Antarctica. Leopard seals are bold and curious by nature, with krill and penguins making up 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 the loss of sea ice. Photo by Matthew Smith/WPOTY
Winner of the Photojournalist Story Award
A forensic expert from the UK's Metropolitan Police dusts for fingerprints on a confiscated tusk in Heathrow Airport, United Kingdom. Usually, fingerprints cannot be lifted from ivory, its odontogenic pores soak them up within a day or two. However, using a new chemically tailored and finer magnetic powder, less fingerprint sweat material is needed and the powder can adhere to residues from 28 days previously, although they are still at their best quality within the first seven days. The powder can be coloured for use on dark materials such as rhino horn. Photo by Britta Jaschinski/WOPTY
Winner of Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles category
A yellow anaconda (Eunectes notaeus) coils itself around the snout of a yacaré caiman (Caiman yacare). Caimans are generalist feeders and will eat snakes. Conversely, as anacondas get larger, they will include reptiles in their diet – therefore It’s hard to determine who is the aggressor here. On the snake’s back are two tabanids, blood-sucking horseflies that are known to target reptiles. Photographed by the Transpantaneira Highway, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Photo by Karine Aigner/WPOTY
Winner of Behaviour: Mammals category
This baby toque macaque (Macaca sinica) is so relaxed suckling milk from its mother that it has fallen asleep. Toque macaques easily adapt to human foods, and the encroachment of plantations into their habitat has seen an increase in incidents of shooting, snaring and poisoning by farmers trying to preserve their crops. Photographed at the Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Photo by Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod/WPOTY
Winner of Oceans: The Bigger Picture category
A mosaic made from the 403 pieces of plastic found inside the digestive tract of a dead flesh-footed shearwater. 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 problem, researchers with the Adrift Lab aim to raise awareness and advocate for action to address overconsumption, poor waste management and pollution. Photo by Justin Gilligan/WPOTY
The Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) is one of two freshwater dolphin species living in the Amazon and Orinoco basins. Only this species has evolved to explore the seasonally flooded forest habitat. Photo by Thomas Peschak/WPOTY
Winner of Wetlands: The Bigger Picture category & Overall winner
Western toad (Anaxyrus boreas) tadpoles among lily pads in a lake on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Western toad tadpoles swim up from the safer depths of the lake, dodging predators and trying to reach the shallows, where they can feed. The tadpoles start becoming toads between four and 12 weeks after hatching. An estimated 99 per cent will not survive to adulthood. Photo by Shane Goss/WPOTY
James Cutmore is the picture editor of BBC Science Focus Magazine. He has worked on the magazine and website for over a decade, telling compelling science stories through the use of striking imagery. He holds a degree in Fine Art, and has been nominated for the British Society of Magazine Editors Talent Awards, being highly commended in 2020. His main areas of interest include photography that highlights positive technology and the natural world. For many years he was a judge for the Wellcome Trust's image competition, as well as judging for the Royal Photographic Society.
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