Canadian Marine Conservation Photojournalist Shane Gross clinched top spot for his image ‘The Swarm of Life’, a captivating photo that shines a light on the magical underwater world of western toad tadpoles.
The Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 was awarded to Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas from Germany for his image ‘Life Under Dead Wood’, which shows a tiny springtail stood beside the fruiting bodies of slime mould.
Discover more award-winning images – and the stories behind them – from this year’s competition.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 winners
‘Life under dead wood’ by Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas (Winner: 15-17 Years). Tinker-Tsavalas rolls a log over to see the fruiting bodies of slime mould and a tiny springtail. Tinker-Tsavalas worked fast to take this photograph, as springtails can jump many times their body length in a split second. He used a technique called focus stacking, where 36 images, each with a different area in focus, are combined. Springtails are barely two millimetres long (less than a tenth of an inch). They are found alongside slime moulds and leaf litter all over the world. They feed on microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi, improving soil by helping organic matter to decompose/Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘Under the waterline’ by Matthew Smith (Winner: Underwater). To capture this split image of a curious leopard seal beneath the Arctic ice, Matthew used a specially designed extension on the front of his underwater housing. It was his first encounter with a leopard seal and this young individual in Paradise Bay, Antarctica, made several close passes. “When it looked straight into the lens barrel, I knew I had something good, Matthew recalls. Though leopard seals are widespread and abundant, overfishing, retreating sea ice and warming waters mean that krill and penguins – their main food sources – are both in decline/Matthew Smith, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘Wetland wrestle’ by Karine Aigner (Winner: Behaviour, Amphibians and Reptiles). The tour group Karine was leading had stopped to photograph some marsh deer when she noticed an odd shape floating in the water. Through binoculars she quickly recognised that it was a yellow anaconda coiled around the snout of a yacaré caiman. While caimans are generalist feeders and will eat snakes, as anacondas get larger, they will include reptiles in their diet, so it’s hard to determine who is the aggressor here. On the snake’s back are two tabanids, blood-sucking horseflies that are known to target reptiles/Karine Aigner, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘An evening meal’ by Parham Pourahmad (Winner: 11-14 Years). The last rays of the setting sun illuminate a young Cooper’s hawk eating a squirrel. Over a single summer, Parham visited Ed R Levin County Park in California most weekends to take photographs. He wanted to showcase the variety of wildlife living within a busy metropolitan city, and to illustrate that “nature will always be wild and unpredictable”. Cooper’s hawk inhabits woodlands as well as urban spaces, where there are tall trees to nest in and birdfeeders that attract smaller birds, which they can prey on/Parham Pourahmad, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘The artful crow’ by Jiri Hrebicek (Winner: Natural Artistry). Jiří often visits his local park in Basel, Switzerland, as it’s an ideal place to experiment with camera techniques. To create this painterly, impressionistic vision of a perching carrion crow, he deliberately moved his camera in different directions, while using a longer shutter speed. Carrion crows are intelligent birds that have successfully adapted to living alongside humans, with gardens and parks providing a regular food supply. In Switzerland they are found north of the Alps, with some of the highest concentrations around Basel/Jiri Hrebicek, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘A tranquil moment’ by Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod (Winner: Behaviour, Mammals). Resting in a quiet place after a morning of photographing birds and leopards, Vinod soon realised he wasn’t alone. A troop of toque macaques was moving through the trees above in Wilpattu National Park, Sri Lanka. Vinod spotted this young monkey sleeping between feeds and used his telephoto lens to frame the peaceful moment. Toque macaques easily adapt to human foods, and the encroachment of plantations into their habitat has seen an increase in incidents of shooting, snaring and poisoning by farmers trying to preserve their crops/Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘The demolition squad’ by Ingo Arndt (Winner: Behaviour, Invertebrates). “Full of ants” is how Ingo described himself after lying next to the nest of this colony for just a few minutes. He watched as the red wood ants carved an already dead beetle into pieces small enough to fit through the nest entrance. Much of the red wood ants’ nourishment comes from honeydew secreted by aphids, but they also need protein. They are capable of killing insects and other invertebrates much larger than themselves through sheer strength in numbers/Ingo Arndt, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘Rubies and gold’ by Sage Ono (Winner: Rising Star Portfolio Award). The eggs of the tube-snout fish sparkle like gems next to the kelp’s gold, glowing, gas-filled buoyancy aids. This image belongs to Sage’s winning portfolio exploring life around the giant kelp forests in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, California. Inspired by the stories told by his grandfather, a retired marine biologist, and by a photograph of a larval cusk eel, Sage decided to take up underwater photography and moved to the coast to pursue his interest/Sage Ono, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘On watch’ by John Marriott (Winner: Animal Portrait). John had been tracking this lynx family through Yukon, Canada, for almost a week when he photographed a parent resting with its fully grown young sheltering behind. He wore snowshoes and carried light camera gear to make his way through snowy forests, and kept his distance to make sure he didn’t disturb them. Lynx numbers usually reflect the natural population fluctuations of their main prey species, the snowshoe hare. With climate change reducing snow coverage, giving other predators more opportunities to hunt the hares, their numbers may decline, in turn affecting the lynx/John Marriott, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘Practice makes perfect’ by Jack Zhi (Winner: Behaviour, Birds). Flying above its sea-cliff nest in Los Angeles, California, a young falcon practises its hunting skills on a butterfly. Jack had been visiting the area for the past eight years, observing the constant presence of one falcon and photographing the chicks. On this particular day it was a challenge to track the action because the birds were moving so fast. Tests have shown that adult falcons are capable of stooping – dropping down on their prey from above – at speeds of more than 300km per hour/Jack Zhi, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘Old man of the glen’ by Fortunato Gatto (Winner: Plants and Fungi). A gnarled old birch tree adorned with pale ‘old man’s beard’ lichens in Glen Affric. Fortunato often visits these ancient pinewoods in the Scottish Highlands alone to lose himself in their intricate, chaotic, timeless beauty. The presence of the lichens indicates that it’s an area of minimal air pollution. Glen Affric is home to the highest concentration of native trees in the UK and analysis of pollen preserved in the layered sediments shows the forest has stood here for at least 8,300 years/Fortunato Gatto, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘Free as a bird’ by Alberto Román Gómez Hombre (Winner: 10 Years and Under). Alberto took this image that contrasts a delicate stonechat with a hefty chain from the window of his father’s car at the edge of Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park in Cádiz. It was quite tricky to capture as the young bird was quickly flying back and forth, gathering insects. To Alberto, the stonechat displayed a sense of ownership, as if it were a guardian overseeing its territory. This young bird has not yet developed its adult call, which sounds like two stones tapped together. Stonechats tend to prefer open habitats and typically perch on fences/Alberto Román Gómez Hombre, Wildlife Photographer of the Year‘The swarm of life’ by Shane Gross (Winner: Grand Title | Winner: Wetlands, The Bigger Picture). An underwater view of a mass of western toad tadpoles swimming beneath lilypads. Shane spent several hours snorkelling in Cedar Lake on Vancouver Island, careful to prevent any disturbance to the fine layers of silt and algae on the bottom, which would have reduced visibility. The tadpoles are moving up to the shallows to feed. They will start to become toads between one and three months after hatching, though about 90 per cent will not survive to adulthood/Shane Gross, Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.
