Incredible Images Show Winners Of Wildlife Photographer Of The Year

A portrait of two golden snub-nosed monkeys by Dutch photographer Marsel van Oosten has won the 2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

The male and female monkeys with their distinctive blue faces were snapped in the forest of China’s Qinling mountains – the only place left on Earth where this endangered species can be found.

‘This image is a symbolic reminder of the beauty of nature and how impoverished we are becoming as nature is diminished,’ says Roz Kidman Cox, a member of the judging panel.

The photography competition is conducted by the Natural History Museum in London and gave prizes in a range of categories. The Golden Couple beat over 45,000 entries from 95 countries to win.

Other stunning shots show an 8-year-old leopard who has just woken up from a nap in Botswana, and a mountain gorilla in Uganda who refuses to let go of the corpse of her dead baby.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘The Golden Couple’ by Marsel van Oosten from The Netherlands is the 2018 winner of Animal Portraits, which is part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The image shows two golden snub-nosed monkeys in their last surviving forest habitat in the Qinling Mountains of central China. It beat over 45,000 entries from 95 countries to win. Roz Kidman Cox, Chair of the judging panel, said: ‘This image is in one sense traditional – a portrait. But what a striking one, and what magical animals. It is a symbolic reminder of the beauty of nature and how impoverished we are becoming as nature is diminished. It is an artwork worthy of hanging in any gallery in the world’

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Lounging Leopard’ by Skye Meaker from South Africa, which is the 2018 winner of 15-17 Years Old category. The photograph is an absorbing portrait of an 8-year-old leopard who has just woken up at Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana. Competition judge and previous competition winner, Alexander Badyaev, said: ‘With precisely executed timing and composition, we get a coveted glimpse into the inner world of one of the most frequently photographed, yet rarely truly seen, animals’

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Desert relic’ by Jen Guyton from Germany/USA, which is the 2018 winner of Plants and Fungi category of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The cones of a female welwitschia in the Namib Desert. The largest specimens can grow to more than 8 meters (26 feet) and it has been claimed that some maybe 1,000 years old or more. They mostly live in Namibia and Angola, in difficult, dry conditions. Jen trekked across the hot sand to find this one about 1.5 meters (5 feet) across, and with ‘the right shape and lively colors’ and used a wide and low angle to capture both plant and expansive landscape in the sunset

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Hellbent’ by American Photographer David Herasimtschuk, which is the 2018 winner in the category Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles, which is part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. It shows a northern water snake clamped in the jaws of a hungry hellbender in Tennessee’s Tellico River. ‘It looked as though the hellbender had a firm grip and the snake was tiring,’ said David, ‘but then the snake squeezed its powerful body against the hellbender’s head’

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Kuhirwa mourns her baby’ by Ricardo Nunez Montero of Spain, which is the 2018 winner of the Behaviour: Mammals category of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Kuhirwa, a young female member of the Nkuringo mountain gorilla family in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, is not holding a bundle of roots but the tiny corpse of her baby. Kuhirwa’s baby probably died of cold as she gave birth during the bad weather season

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘The vision’ by Jan van der Greef of The Netherlands, which is the 2018 winner of the category Black and White. It shows an eastern mountaineer hummingbird taking nectar from a red-hot-poker plant. Jan waited days in the garden of his hotel in southern Peru, observing hummingbirds. Eastern mountaineers are found only in Peru and are characterized by long, black-and-white forked tails. The bird formed a cross shape just for an instant and it took two half days to get the perfect shot, with Jan’s camera set to capture 14 frames a second

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘The ice pool’ by Cristobal Serrano from Spain, which is the 2018 winner of the Creative Visions category. The winners will be celebrated today at a ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London, which runs the international competition. The image was shot on a cloudy day in the Errera Channel on the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The current through this relatively calm channel carries many icebergs and this one was about 40 meters (130 feet) long and rising up to 14 meters (46 feet) tall. Cristobal took the shot with a quiet drone so as not to disturb any wildlife

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Mother defender’ by Javier Aznar Gonzalez de Rueda, Spain, which is the 2018 winner of Wildlife Photographer Portfolio Award – part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. It shows a large Alchisme treehopper guarding her family of nymphs while they feed on the stem of a nightshade plant in El Jardín de los Sueños reserve in Ecuador. It was one of six images that won Javier the portfolio award

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Signature Tree’ by Mexican photographer Alejandro Prieto, which is the 2018 winner of the Wildlife Photojournalist Award: Story. The photograph shows a male jaguar sharpening his claws by scratching his signature into a tree on the edge of his mountain territory in the Sierra de Vallejo Nayarit, western Mexico. Alejandro set up his custom-built camera trap some six meters (20 feet) up the tree and returned every month to change the batteries. Eight months elapsed before he was able to capture this perfect shot

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Pipe owls’ by Arshdeep Singh of India, which is the 2018 winner for 10 Years and Under – part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. It shows two owlets hiding in the opening of a waste-pipe just outside the city of Kapurthala in the Indian state of Punjab. Arshdeep, who has photographed birds since he was 6, borrowed his father’s camera and telephoto lens. The smaller bird was less than 20 centimeters (8 inches) high

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Bloodthirsty’ by Thomas P Peschak of Germany/South Africa, which is the 2018 winner of Behaviour: Birds. The photograph was taken on Wolf Island in the remote northern Galápagos, and features sharp-beaked ground finches feasting on a larger Nazca Booby as their usual diet of seeds and insects are hard to come by on the island. Pecking away flight feathers with their sharp beaks – they are drinking the Nazca Booby’s blood to survive, but won’t cause permanent damage. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ said Thomas, who had a permit to photograph the island

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Windsweep’ by Orlando Fernandez Miranda of Spain, which is the 2018 winner of Earth’s Environments. It was taken at the top of Namibia’s desert Atlantic coastline. Orlando faced a strong northeasterly wind, rays of afternoon sun and a thick ocean fog obscuring his view on the Skeleton Coast

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Mud-rolling mud-dauber’ by Georgina Steytler from Australia, which is the 2018 winner of the Behaviour: Invertebrates category of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. It was taken at the waterhole at Walyormouring Nature Reserve in Western Australia and shows female mud-dauber wasps digging for mud and then rolling it into perfect tiny balls to create egg chambers for their nests. It took Georgina hundreds of attempts to get the ideal shot

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Bed of seals’ by Cristobal Serrano of Spain, which is the 2018 winner for the Animals in their Environment category. Although they may look as small as fish from this aerial angle, the photograph shows crabeater seals sharing an ice floe in the Errera Channel at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Duck of dreams’ by Carlos Perez Naval, Spain, which is the 2018 winner for the 11-14 Years Old category. The male long-tailed duck – pictured resting after feeding – was captured by Carlos on the Varanger Peninsula, on Norway’s northern coast of the Barents Sea. To get close enough to photograph the duck meant getting to the hide at sunrise, before the ducks flew in to feed

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Dream duel’ by Michel d’Oultremont from Belgium, which is the 2018 winner of Rising Star Portfolio Award, part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. From a portfolio of six images, this was captured in the Ardennes forest in Belgium while the photographer hid behind a tree with a camouflage net. It shows two red deer stags clashing antlers in a fight over females

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Night flight’ by Michael Patrick O’Neill of the USA, the 2018 winner in the Under Water category which is part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Michael captured the image on a night dive over calm deep water in the Atlantic, far off Florida’s Palm Beach – as these fish are impossible to approach during daylight because they are so fast. They feed on planktonic animals close to the surface of the ocean. This fish is just 13 centimeters (5 inches) long

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘Crossing paths’ by Marco Colombo, Italy – the 2018 winner of Urban Wildlife, a category of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. It was taken in a village in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, late in the evening and shows a Marsican brown bear crossing the road. Colombo turned off the car and took the photograph through the windscreen

Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2018

‘The sad clown’ by Joan de la Malla, Spain, which is the 2018 winner of Wildlife Photojournalism – part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. It shows Timbul, a young long-tailed macaque in a mask he has to wear to perform in a street show in Surabaya, on the Indonesian island of Java. The macaques wear uncomfortable masks and do tricks like dancing and riding bikes. Joan said of the monkey owners in Surabaya: ‘They are not bad people, and by doing street shows, they can afford to send their children to school. They just need other opportunities to make a living.’

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