WINNER MAMMALS AND OVERALL WINNER

This stunning shot of two young stoats, looking for all the world like the Ant & Dec of the animal kingdom, was taken in Suffolk by Robert Fearn, 47, from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Notts. ‘I’m passionate about photography. I’ve been taking pictures almost all my life but it’s only been in the last couple of years that I’ve been able to afford some decent digital equipment. It means I can now get the photographs I’ve always wanted to,’ he says.

‘For the last two or three years my wife Helen and I have been going on holiday near Lackford Lakes in Suffolk because it’s easy to see kingfishers there and they make fantastic studies. On this particular day we were just walking back from the hide when we spotted a stoat running down the path in front of us. We reached a gate, and just the other side was a pile of logs and rocks. Suddenly, two young stoats appeared and started playing among the debris.

‘I was using my Canon 7D Mk II. I pulled it out and the stoats couldn’t have cared less about us, which meant I could fire off a succession of shots and I can’t have been more than ten feet away. They were completely caught up in their own fun and games. ‘At Easter my wife and I are off to South Wales to photograph red kites; up to 300 gather each day at a feeding station in the Brecon Beacons. That will be quite a spectacle, but I can’t believe I’ll be going to Slovakia with Simon Stafford too to photograph bears in the wild. What a fantastic prize!

‘I recently started posting a few of my photographs on Facebook and people have paid me quite a few compliments. Helen owns and runs a craft shop so I tend to go out on a Saturday with my camera when she’s working. It used to be a framing shop and people still come in and ask to have a picture framed.

I’ve half a mind to ask her to frame my winning picture and hang it on the wall.’

DAVID SUCHET SAYS ‘I like everything about this – the colours, the textures, the way it all blends together. For me, it’s not only the beauty of the two young stoats but of their natural environment.’