World’s best wildlife images on show at Canterbury Museum
Not many get to witness with their own eyes a polar bear claw away and carve a bed for himself in an iceberg, or hold fierce eye contact with a three-legged Arctic fox.
But each are global award-winning views captured with a lens that will be put on display at the Canterbury Museum.
The world-renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is set to openthis month, on loan from the prestigious Natural History Museum in London.
The exhibition offers a glimpse into wildlife across the world, taking visitors from the bottom of the oceans to the peaks of mountains.
It will feature the 100 best photographs selected from 49,957 entries from 95 countries. The 59th edition of the photography competition was judged anonymously by experts at the Natural History Museum.
The museum’s director, Dr Doug Gurr, said the exhibition was increasingly relevant in the face of climate change.
“We are facing urgent biodiversity and climate crises, and photography is a powerful catalyst for change,” Gurr said.
“The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition reveals some of nature’s most wondrous sights whilst offering hope and achievable actions visitors can take to help protect the natural world.”
Nima Sarikhani’s photograph of a sleeping polar bear, called Ice Bed, won the People’s Choice Award when the winning images were announced in October.
The image was taken during a threeday sea expedition off Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, when two polar bears were spotted just before midnight. A young bear clambered on to a small iceberg and, using his strong paws, clawed away at it to carve out a bed for himself.
Judging panel chairperson Kathy Moran said the collection brought together “wonder and woe”.
“What most impressed the jury was the range of subjects, from absolute beauty, rarely seen behaviours and species, to images that are stark reminders of what we are doing to the natural world,” Moran said.
The exhibition last showed at Canterbury Museum in 2019 and was enormously popular, tumuaki (director) Anthony Wright said.
“It’s easy to see why, with such a diverse and astonishing array of images on display. We can’t wait to share this extraordinary exhibition with visitors.”
The exhibition begins on May 10 at the museum’s pop-up CoCA Gloucester St site, while its Rolleston Ave site undergoes a multi-million-dollar revamp over the next five years.