Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Stories Beyond The Lens

The 'Animal Portraits' brief: Reveal the personality of an individual or an intimate group of animals in a thought-provoking or memorable way.

A sudden glimpse of movement across the treeless tundra caught Mark Williams's (UK/Canada) eye. He spotted an Arctic fox in motion through his binoculars, his piercing stare and fur backlit by the sun. In the Canadian Arctic, the summer of constant daylight was nearly over, and in a few months, darkness would take over, and temperatures would plummet to -40˚C. Instead of hibernating, these foxes grow thick, white winter coats to camouflage with the snow. However, due to climate change, snowfall is delayed, and foxes are left in white against the browns and greens of a snow-free tundra.

Williams won Highly Commended.

The brief for the 'Under Water' category: Reveal life underwater, whether portraying a particular marine or freshwater environment, focusing on the behaviour of an animal or placing it within the context of a specific underwater location, always with the aesthetics in mind.

It took a few years before Mike Korostelev (Russia) found the perfect moment to capture hippos swimming underwater with his drone. While keeping a respectful distance to avoid alarming the mother, he seized his chance (a mere 20 seconds) to capture her swimming with her two offspring in the clear water of a shallow lake. With each female hippo producing just one calf every two to three years, their slow-growing population is particularly susceptible to habitat degradation, drought and illegal hunting. 

Korosteleve took home the prize of Category Winner. 

The 'Behaviour: Mammals' brief: Portray memorable, unusual or dramatic behaviour.

This incredible photograph by Olivier Gonnet (France) serves as a powerful reminder to never get between a mother and her cubs. In a moment of high stakes, Gonnet swiftly captured the lioness protecting her cubs from a buffalo. He quickly adjusted his camera to accommodate the low light, framing the unfurling confrontation. The resulting image is packed full of tension as the buffalo's heavy ridge horns meet the lioness's vicious display of teeth. The buffalo later gave up his siege. Adult lions have no predators, but they are at risk from persecution by humans as well as from decreasing prey populations. 

Gonnet won Highly Commended.

The 'Animals in their Environment' brief: Evoke atmosphere and a sense of place - with the habitat as a major element of the picture – to convey how an animal is an integral part of its environment.

After a laborious hike to a high vantage point, Amit Eshel (Israel) captured an aggressive clash between two Nubian ibexes on a cliffside. With his wide-angle lens, he inched closer to the action, capturing the confrontation against a dramatic backdrop. As the mating scene approaches, the neck muscles of the males thicken, and part of their coat darkens. Rivals size one another up, raising their hind legs and ramming their heads together. Sometimes, the impact can be so great that their horns break as they collide. 

Eshel took home the prize of Category Winner.

The 'Under Water' category brief: Reveal life underwater, whether portraying a particular marine or freshwater environment, focusing on an animal's behaviour, or placing it within the context of a specific underwater location, always with aesthetics in mind.

Alex Mustard (UK) has a fondness for gobies. For the unbeknownst, gobies are small marine fish that typically have a sucker on the underside. They are usually skittish, but Mustard was determined to capture more than one in the frame. In this enrapturing shot, he shows the biodiversity of a healthy coral reef as ghost gobies – which are translucent and can grow to be at most three centimetres long – swim within the branches of a sea fan. In order to capture the gobies as well as the contrasting colours of the sea fan against the turquoise water, Mustard held his camera steady in the current to get a long enough exposure. A healthy coral reef is instrumental in supporting a diversity of interconnected species but are at risk due to the warming seas of climate change.

Mustard won Highly Commended.

The 'Under Water' category brief: Reveal life underwater, whether portraying a particular marine or freshwater environment, focusing on an animal's behaviour, or placing it within the context of a specific underwater location, always with aesthetics in mind.

Isaac Szabo (USA) headed down to a freshwater stream in western Virginia to showcase how a river chub's nest can attract other species. Fortuitously, a colourful fish appeared out of the haze carrying a rock. During spring spawning, the male river chub carries rocks and pebbles, sometimes as far as ten metres, to form a mound, among which the female can lay her eggs, away from currents and predators. The river chub is instrumental in supporting diversity, helping to hold the eco-system together by providing nests for other freshwater fish. 

Mustard won Highly Commended.

The brief for the 'Urban Wildlife' category: Focus on nature’s occupation or cohabitation in a human-dominated environment, whether capturing the magic of the commonplace or the surprise of the unexpected or normally unseen.

And now last but not least, the Australian prize-winning shot of a hungry possum by Caitlin Henderson (Australia). One night, Henderson peeked out of her kitchen window to see a common brushtail possum. A large northern greengrocer cicada joined in on the action, and the possum darted toward it, grabbed it and enjoyed its dinner. Amazingly, the possum was also there long enough for Henderson to notice the foot of a baby jutting out of its pouch. This nocturnal marsupial is ubiquitous in Australia, but it has readily adapted to the urban environment, often shacking up on roofs, leading to many a human-on-possum conflict. 

Henderson won Highly Commended.