Winning photos from National Geographic's Nature Photographer of the Year contest
National Geographic has unveiled the winners of its 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest. The categories for the photos include wildlife, aerials, landscapes, and underwater. Selected from over 11,000 entries, this wildlife photo was selected as the grand prize winner.
The photo shows a male orangutan peering from behind a tree while crossing a river in the Tanjung Puting National Park in Borneo, Indonesia.
Wildlife - Second Place
An adult Caribbean pink flamingo feeds a chick in Yucatán, Mexico. Both parents alternate feeding chicks, at first with a liquid baby food called crop milk, and then with regurgitated food.
2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest
Underwater - First Place
Blue-filtered strobe lights stimulate fluorescent pigments in the clear tentacles of a tube-dwelling anemone in Hood Canal, Washington.
2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest
Underwater - Second Place
Typically a shy species, a Caribbean reef shark investigates a remote-triggered camera in Cuba's Gardens of the Queen marine protected area.
2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest
Aerials - First Place
In Sydney, Australia, the Pacific Ocean at high tide breaks over a natural rock pool enlarged in the 1930s. Avoiding the crowds at the city's many beaches, a local swims laps.
2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest
Aerials - Second Place
Snow-covered Metasequoia trees, also called dawn redwoods, interlace over a road in Takashima, Japan.
2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest
Landscapes - First Place
Shortly before twilight in Kalapana, Hawai'i, a fragment of the cooled lava tube broke away, leaving the molten rock to fan in a fiery spray for less than half an hour before returning to a steady flow.
2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest
Landscapes - Second Place
Sunlight glances off mineral strata of different colors in Dushanzi Grand Canyon, China.
2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest