Wild things

These stunning winning images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year will make your heart sing

The annual revealing of the winners of each new Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPOTY) is one of the highlights of the photographic calendar. It attracts some of the biggest names in photography and the exhibition, held annually in the beautiful and prestigious setting of London’s Natural History Museum, draws tens of thousands of visitors. This year’s competition attracted 45,000 entries and, as usual, the 100 winning and shortlisted images take the viewer on an emotional rollercoaster as we gasp at the beauty and wonder of our natural world but are also confronted by images of cruelty and destruction. How many of the incredible creatures and environments captured by these gifted photographers will still be around for the next generation to enjoy and photograph is anyone’s guess.

There were so many powerful images this year and as many great stories behind them, but here’s a small selection. If you like what you see we recommend that you make a date to visit the exhibition, which will be open until 30 June 2019 at the Natural History Museum, London, and is also touring the UK and internationally. Visit www. nhm.ac.uk for details.

The Vision Jan van der Greef, The Netherlands Winner 2018, Black and White

Perfectly balanced, its wings vibrating, its tail opening and closing, with its tiny feet touching the spike for just an instant, an eastern mountaineer hummingbird siphons nectar from a redhot-poker plant. In the garden of his hotel in Peru, Jan noticed that an eastern mountaineer – found only in Peru – would rotate around the red-hot-poker spikes as it fed. He also saw that, when the bird moved behind a spike and its tail closed for a moment, a beautiful cross appeared. So he staked out a spot. The low position of his wheelchair allowed him to set the spike against the sky. It took two half days to get the shot – setting his camera to capture 14 frames a second, as the cross appeared for just a fraction of a second. Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, 500mm f/4 with 1.4x III extender, 1/5000sec at f/5.6, ISO 4000; Gitzo tripod; Jobu gimbal head

The Golden Couple Marsel van Oosten, The Netherlands Winner 2018, Grand title

Marsel attributes the astonishing three- dimensional quality of his winning image to the position of the single flashgun that lit this golden snub-nosed monkey pair. ‘I always shoot with my wife Daniella and she is my mobile light stand,’ he jokes. ‘She moves to influence the quality of the light and I control the output from the camera.’ The picture was taken in the Qinling Mountains, in China. Nikon D810, Tamron 24–70mm f/2.8 lens at 24mm, 1/320sec at f/8, ISO 1600; SB-910 flash

The Ice Pool Cristobal Serrano, Spain Winner 2018, Creative Visions

On a cloudy day – perfect for revealing textures of ice – Cristobal scoured the Errera Channel on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The constant current through this relatively calm stretch of water carries icebergs of all shapes and sizes. These mighty chunks of frozen fresh water have broken off (calved) from glaciers, ice shelves or larger icebergs. Their beauty – towering above the water and looming even larger beneath – is familiar, but their impact from above, less so. Selecting one that looked promising – about 40 metres (130ft) long and rising up to 14 metres (46ft) tall – Cristobal launched his low-noise drone and flew it high over the top, so as not to disturb any wildlife that might be using it for resting. The drone’s fresh perspective revealed an ice carving, whittled by biting winds and polar seas. Warmer air had melted part of the surface to create a clear, heart-shaped pool, within the sweeping curves of ice. The sculpture was set off by the streamlined forms of a few crabeater seals, in dark shades following their summer moult, and simply framed by the deep water. DJI Phantom 4 Pro Plus, 8.8-24mm f/2.8–11, 1/120sec at f/4.5, ISO 100

Crossing Paths Marco Colombo, Italy winner 2018, Urban wildlife

A shadowy movement caught Marco’s eye as he drove slowly through a village in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park in Italy’s Apennine Mountains. It was late evening, and he thought there was a chance it might be a Marsican brown bear rather than a deer waiting to cross the road. Stopping the car, he switched off the lights to avoid stressing the animal. He had just a few minutes to change lenses and prepare to take a shot through the windscreen before the bear walked out of the shadows and across the road, disappearing into the dark woods. Though the light was poor, the backdrop made up for it, complete with nature-tourism posters. Most Marsican brown bears – an isolated, unaggressive and critically endangered subspecies – stay well away from humans. A few individuals, though, venture into villages to raid vegetable gardens and orchards, especially in the run-up to winter hibernation, when they need to lay down fat. This puts them at risk of being hit by cars, retaliatory poisoning, and harassment: video clips of bears being chased by cars have appeared on social media. With just 50 or so bears remaining, every death is a disaster. Electric fences around orchards help deter the bears from coming into villages, and education can protect both the bears and the nature tourism they attract. Nikon D700, 28–70mm, 1/50sec at f/4, ISO 6400; MaGear harness

Kuhirwa Mourns Her Baby Ricardo Núñez Montero, Spain winner 2018, Behaviour: Mammals

Kuhirwa, a young female member of the Nkuringo mountain gorilla family in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, would not give up on her dead baby. What Ricardo first thought to be a bundle of roots turned out to be the tiny corpse. Forced by the low light to work with a wide aperture and a very narrow depth of field, he focused on the body rather than Kuhirwa’s face. Guides told him she had given birth in bad weather and that the baby probably died of cold. At first Kuhirwa had cuddled and groomed the body, moving its legs and arms and carrying it piggyback like the other mothers. Weeks later, she started to eat what was left of the corpse – the guide had only ever seen this once before. Kuhirwa’s initial reactions to her bereavement echo responses to death seen in other species. Nikon D610, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6, 1/750sec at f/5, ISO 2200

This is one of six images from Alejandro’s winning photo story entitled Gunning for the Jaguar. A male jaguar sharpens his claws and scratches his signature into a tree on the edge of his mountain territory in the Sierra de Vallejo in Mexico’s western state of Nayarit. The boundary-post has been chosen with care – the tree has soft bark, allowing for deep scratch marks backed by a pungent scent that are a clear warning not to trespass. Alejandro set up his custom-built camera trap some 6 metres (20ft) up the tree and returned every month to change the batteries. Eight months elapsed before the jaguar eventually returned to this corner of his realm to refresh his mark. Jaguars need vast territories to have access to enough prey. But in Mexico, habitat is being lost at a rapid rate as forests are cleared for crops or livestock or for urban development, and much of what remains is fragmented. The loss of even a small area of habitat can cut a jaguar highway between one part of a territory and another, and isolate the animal to such an extent that it cannot feed itself or find a mate. Nikon D3300, 10–20mm lens, 1/200sec at f/9, ISO 200; home-made waterproof camera box; two Nikon flashes + Plexiglas tubes; TrailMaster infrared remote trigger

Lounging Leopard Skye Meaker, South Africa young wildlife photographer of the year 2018 This beautiful portrait won 16-year- old Skye the title of Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The location of this leopard, at Botswana’s Mashatu Game Reserve, is a 13-hour drive away for Skye and his family – but despite the distance they have visited regularly over the years and Skye has got to know this eight-year- old female, called Limpy, due to a limp sustained as a cub. They found Limpy resting in a tree and Skye spent several hours photographing her. The morning light was poor, leaves kept blowing across her face, and her eyes were only ever open briefly. But finally, just as she opened her eyes for a second, the overhead branches moved enough to let in a shaft of light that gave a glint to her eyes, helping him to create his memorable portrait. Skye hopes to become a professional wildlife photographer, which is why when his parents offered him a car for his 16th birthday he asked for a 500mm lens instead! Canon EOS-1D X, 500mm f/4, 1/80sec at f/4, ISO 1250

Blood Thirsty Thomas P Peschak, Germany/South Africa winner 2018, Behaviour: Birds

When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the Galápagos, the ground finches become vampires. Nazca boobies and other large birds thrive here, but finches rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects. Pecking at the base of booby feathers with their sharp beaks, they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen half a dozen finches drinking from one booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave and expose their eggs and chicks to the sun, the boobies appear to tolerate the vampires, and the blood loss doesn’t seem to cause permanent harm. Working on a climate- change story, Tom had secured a rare permit to land on the island. He made it up the steep cliffs, and shot the scene at the bird’s eye level to capture one female feeding and another waiting behind. Nikon D5, 16-35mm, 1/200sec at f/20, ISO 160; Profoto B1X 500 AirTTL flash

‘Pecking at the base of nazca booby feathers with their sharp beaks, the ground finches drink blood to survive’

Hellbent David Herasimtschuk, USA Winner 2018, Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles

It wasn’t looking good for the northern water snake, clamped in the jaws of a hungry hellbender in Tennessee’s Tellico River, but it was a remarkable find for David. North America’s largest aquatic salamander – up to 75cm (29in) long – hellbender numbers have declined significantly because of habitat loss and degradation of the habitat that remains. ‘It looked like the hellbender had a firm grip and the snake was tiring,’ says David, ‘but then the snake squeezed its powerful body against the hellbender’s head.’ When the attacker tried to reposition its bite, the snake pushed free from its jaws and escaped. The drama was over in just a few minutes, but David managed to capture this rarely seen behaviour. Sony A7R II, 28mm f/2 and Nauticam WWL-1 lens, 1/60sec at f/13, ISO 1250; Nauticam housing; Inon Z-240 strobe

Night Flight Michael Patrick O’Neill, USA Winner 2018, Under Water

On a night dive over deep water in the Atlantic, far off Florida’s Palm Beach, Michael achieved a long-held goal: to photograph a flying fish so as to convey the speed, motion and beauty of this ‘fantastic creature’. By day, these fish are almost impossible to approach. Living at the surface, they are potential prey for a great many animals, including tuna, marlin and mackerel. But they have the ability to sprint away from danger, rapidly beating their unevenly forked tails (the lower lobe is longer than the upper one) to build enough speed to soar up and out of the water. Spreading their long, pointed pectoral fins like wings, flying fish can glide for several hundred metres (more than 650ft). At night, they are more approachable, moving slowly as they feed on planktonic animals close to the surface. In a calm ocean, Michael was able to get closer and closer to this individual, which became relaxed in his presence. In the pitch black, he tried various camera and light settings, all the while keeping track of both his subject – a mere 13cm (5in) long – and his dive boat. The result is his ‘innerspace’ vision of a flying fish. Nikon D4, 60mm f/2.8, 1/8sec at f/16, ISO 500; Aquatica housing; two Inon Z-220 strobes