Top wildlife shots 2015
"A Tale of Two Foxes" and other top shots from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 competition held by Britain's Natural History Museum.
The overall winner is Canadian amateur photographer Don Gutoski for his startling photo - "A Tale of Two Foxes" - which won in the Mammals category as well.
It's a frozen moment revealing a surprising behavior in Wapusk National Park, on Hudson Bay, Canada in early winter. Red foxes don't actively hunt Arctic foxes, but where the ranges of two predators overlap, there can be conflict. In this case, it led to a deadly attack. Though the light was poor, the snow-covered tundra provided the backdrop for the moment that the red fox paused with the smaller fox in its mouth in a grim pose.
Winner - Still life
Dutch photographer Edwin Giesbers won first place in the Amphibians and Reptiles category for the photo, "Still Life," in which a great crested newt hangs motionless near the surface of a stream.
Also motionless in the water was Giesbers in a wetsuit. He had very slowly moved his compact camera right under the newt, and though he knew the shot he wanted, he had to guess at the framing and literally point and shoot. The male had just taken a breath and was possibly warming up at the surface. It was a cold April morning, and the trees were not yet in leaf, but it was mating time for these large newts, and the males were already on the lookout for females.
Giesbers took this shot as part of a major story on the threat facing amphibians throughout the Netherlands and Belgium: an Asian skin fungus, similar to the one that has annihilated frogs and toads worldwide, has all but wiped out fire salamanders in the Netherlands. Scientists are bracing themselves for a collapse of European amphibian populations, unless some way is found to stop the fungus from spreading.
Winner - Birds
The winner in the Birds category is Israeli photographer Ami Ben-Dov for "The company of Three."
Amir spent six days watching red-footed falcons on agricultural land near Beit Shemesh, Israel, where their flock was resting on autumn migration, refueling on insects. What fascinated him was the fact that two subadult females and the full‑grown, slate-grey male were spending most of their time together. They would hunt together from a post rather than using the more normal hovering technique.
As so often happens in photography, it was on the last day in the last hour before Ben-Dov had to return home when the magic happened. The sun came out, the three birds perched together, and a subtle interaction took place: one female nudged the male with her talon as she flew up to make space on the branch for the other female. The exact relationship between the three birds remains a mystery.
Winner - Impressions
Juan Tapia of Spain won in the Impressions category for "Life Comes to Art."
Every year, a pair of barn swallows nests in the rafters of an old storehouse on Tapia's farm in Almeria, southern Spain, entering the building through a broken windowpane. The swallows seem unperturbed by people coming in and out.
Juan decided to try to take a very different image of the swallows. Making a swallow-sized hole in the oil painting, he moved it over the window that the swallows entered through. Using two flashes, both to light the canvas and to freeze the movement, he linked a remote control to his camera, which he positioned to shoot the entrance hole against the sky. He then retreated to his truck with his binoculars ready. It took 300 shots and 8 solid hours before he finally got the moment when one of the swallows swooped in with the sky behind, as though it had punched straight through into another world.
Winner - Underwater
A Bryde's Whale rips through a swirling ball of sardines, gulping a huge mouthful in a single pass in Michael Aw's photo, captured while diving offshore of South Africa's Transkei (Eastern Cape), that won first place in the Underwater category. The photo, "A Whale of a Mouthful" shows the whale as it expels hundreds of liters of seawater from its mouth. The fish are retained by plates of baleen hanging down from its palate; they are then pushed into its stomach to be digested alive.
This sardine baitball was a huge section of a much larger shoal below that common dolphins had corralled by blowing a bubble-net around the fish and forcing them up against the surface. Other predators had joined the feeding frenzy, attacking from all sides. The Bryde's Whale was one of five that were lunging in turn into the center of the baitball.
Aw made the dive to photograph the spectacle of the 'sardine run' - the annual winter migration of billions of sardines along the southeastern coast of southern Africa.
Winner - From the Sky
Spanish photographer Pere Soler's image "The Art of Algae" shows a vivid mosaic of marshes, reedbeds, sand dunes and beaches in The Bahía de Cádiz Natural Park on the coast of Andalucia, Spain. The area attracts great numbers of birds; and in spring, it is an important migration stopping-off point. As the temperature warms and the salinity changes, the intertidal wetlands are transformed by color as bright green seaweed intermingles with multicolored microalgal blooms. White salt deposits and brown and orange sediments colored by sulphurous bacteria and iron oxide add to the riot of color.
The display, in its full splendor, usually lasts just a few weeks in May or June, but it is hard to predict exactly when. Pere took his chances in June, hired a plane and, at midday, when the tide was out and the light was overhead, he was able to photograph the rich tapestry of color and texture.
Winner - Urban
Richard Peters of the UK won in the Urban category for this photo of an urban fox appropriately called "Shadow Walker."
It was the sense of living in the shadows that Peters wanted to convey. He had been photographing nocturnal wildlife in his back garden in Surrey, England, for several months before he had the idea for the image. But taking the shot proved to be surprisingly difficult. It required placing the tripod where he could capture both the cityscape night sky and the fox silhouette, a ground-level flash for a defined shadow, a long exposure for the stars, a moonless night to cut down on the ambient light and, of course, the fox to walk between the camera and the wall at the right distance to give the perfect shadow.
On the evening of this shot, the neighbors switched on a light just before the fox arrived, unaware of her presence, but adding to the image.
The Wildlife Photojournalist Award
Britta Jaschinski (Germany/UK) won The Wildlife Photojournalist Award for this photo, titled "Broken cats," of big cats locked into obedience by their trainers' gaze at the Seven Star Park in Guilin, China.
Jaschinski explained that the cats have had their teeth and claws pulled out, and when not in the arena, they live in tiny cages visible behind the stage. At least one (center) is a captive-bred hybrid - part lion, part tiger.
In 2010, the Chinese authorities issued a directive, not legally binding, to zoos and animal parks to stop performances that involve wild animals. In many facilities across the country, it is still business as usual, with shows attracting audiences unaware of the scale of the abuse, neglect and cruelty involved.
For the past 20 years, the photographer has traveled extensively documenting the world of animals in captivity and their unnecessary suffering in the name of education and entertainment.
Young Wildlife Photographer - 11-14 years-old
"Ruffs on Display" won the top prize in the Young Wildlife Photographer competition for 11-14 year-olds for Ondrej Pelánek of the Czech Republic.
On their traditional lek ground - an area of tundra on Norway's Varanger Peninsula - territorial male ruffs in full breeding plumage show off their ruffs to each other, proclaiming ownership of their courtship areas.
Ondrej took his winning shot as one male leapt up, warning off his neighburs. Ruffs are unique in that breeding males behave according to their plumage colors. Those with dark plumage perform on territories. Ones with white ruffs, known as satellite males (far left and far right), don't hold territories but display on the outside of the lek or form uneasy alliances with territory-holding males, helping them to entice females in the hope of grabbing a sneaky mating if the opportunity arises. A third type of 'sneaky male' disguises itself as a female.
Young Wildlife Photographer - 15-17 years old
Jonathan Jagot of France won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year for 15-17 year-olds with "Flight of the Scarlet Ibis."
Jagot made the photo during his family's five year sailing voyage around the world. He saw his first Scarlet Ibis when they anchored off the island of Lençóis on the coast of northeast Brazil and considered it the most beautiful bird he had ever seen. He discovered that at high tide they roosted in the mangroves and that at low tide they flew to the mudflats to feed on the crustaceans and shellfish with their probing curved beaks. At low tide, he took his dinghy into an estuary at one end of the island, anchored where he had a view of the dunes and waited. As the tide rose, so did the Ibis, creating a glorious pattern of scarlet wings against the canvas of sand and tropical blue sky.