• © Skye Meaker. Sleeping Beauty. Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year. A leopard waking from sleep in Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.
    © Skye Meaker. Sleeping Beauty. Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year. A leopard waking from sleep in Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.
  • © Marsel van Oosten (The Netherlands). The golden couple. Grand Title Winner, Animal Portraits Winner – Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018. A male Qinling golden snub-nosed monkey rests briefly on a stone seat. He has been joined by a female from his small group. Both are watching intently as an altercation takes place down the valley between the lead males of two other groups in the 50-strong troop. It’s spring in the temperate forest of China’s Qinling Mountains, the only place where these endangered monkeys live. They spend most of the day foraging in the trees, eating a mix of leaves, buds, seeds, bark and lichen, depending on the season.
    © Marsel van Oosten (The Netherlands). The golden couple. Grand Title Winner, Animal Portraits Winner – Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018. A male Qinling golden snub-nosed monkey rests briefly on a stone seat. He has been joined by a female from his small group. Both are watching intently as an altercation takes place down the valley between the lead males of two other groups in the 50-strong troop. It’s spring in the temperate forest of China’s Qinling Mountains, the only place where these endangered monkeys live. They spend most of the day foraging in the trees, eating a mix of leaves, buds, seeds, bark and lichen, depending on the season.
  • Bed of seals by Cristobal Serrano, Spain. Winner 2018, Animals in their environment. A small ice floe in the Errera Channel at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula provides barely enough room for a group of crab-eater seals to rest, and the cracks are starting to show. It’s the end of summer in the Antarctic, and so sea ice here is in short supply.
    Bed of seals by Cristobal Serrano, Spain. Winner 2018, Animals in their environment. A small ice floe in the Errera Channel at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula provides barely enough room for a group of crab-eater seals to rest, and the cracks are starting to show. It’s the end of summer in the Antarctic, and so sea ice here is in short supply.
  • © Georgina Steytler. First place, Invertebrates. Mud-rolling mud-dauber. It was a hot summer day, and the waterhole at Walyormouring Nature Reserve, Western Australia, was buzzing. Georgina had got there early to photograph birds, but her attention was stolen by the industrious slender mud-dauber wasps, distinctive with their stalk-like first abdominal segments. They were females, busy digging in the soft mud at the water’s edge, and then rolling the mud into balls to create egg chambers to add to their nearby nests.
    © Georgina Steytler. First place, Invertebrates. Mud-rolling mud-dauber. It was a hot summer day, and the waterhole at Walyormouring Nature Reserve, Western Australia, was buzzing. Georgina had got there early to photograph birds, but her attention was stolen by the industrious slender mud-dauber wasps, distinctive with their stalk-like first abdominal segments. They were females, busy digging in the soft mud at the water’s edge, and then rolling the mud into balls to create egg chambers to add to their nearby nests.
  • Signature tree by Alejandro Prieto, Mexico. Winner 2018, Wildlife Photojournalist Award: Story. A male jaguar sharpens his claws and scratches his signature into a tree on the edge of his mountain territory in the Sierra de Vallejo in Mexico’s western state of Nayarit. The boundary-post has been chosen with care – the tree has soft bark, allowing for deep scratch marks that are a clear warning, backed by pungent scent, not to trespass. Alejandro set up his custom-built camera trap some 6 metres (20 feet) up the tree and returned every month to change the batteries. Eight months elapsed before the jaguar eventually returned to this corner of his realm to refresh his mark.
    Signature tree by Alejandro Prieto, Mexico. Winner 2018, Wildlife Photojournalist Award: Story. A male jaguar sharpens his claws and scratches his signature into a tree on the edge of his mountain territory in the Sierra de Vallejo in Mexico’s western state of Nayarit. The boundary-post has been chosen with care – the tree has soft bark, allowing for deep scratch marks that are a clear warning, backed by pungent scent, not to trespass. Alejandro set up his custom-built camera trap some 6 metres (20 feet) up the tree and returned every month to change the batteries. Eight months elapsed before the jaguar eventually returned to this corner of his realm to refresh his mark.
  • Blood thirsty by Thomas P Peschak, Germany/South Africa Winner 2018, Behaviour: Birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds on the plateau. Boobies thrive here, nesting among dense cactus thickets and fishing in the surrounding ocean, but the finches have a tougher time. The island has no permanent water and little rainfall. The finches – among the species that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution – rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up. Pecking away at the base of booby flight feathers with their sharp beaks – a trait that may have evolved from feeding on the birds’ parasites – they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave and expose their eggs and chicks to the sun, the boobies appear to tolerate the vampires.
    Blood thirsty by Thomas P Peschak, Germany/South Africa Winner 2018, Behaviour: Birds. When rations run short on Wolf Island, in the remote northern Galápagos, the sharp-beaked ground finches become vampires. Their sitting targets are Nazca boobies and other large birds on the plateau. Boobies thrive here, nesting among dense cactus thickets and fishing in the surrounding ocean, but the finches have a tougher time. The island has no permanent water and little rainfall. The finches – among the species that inspired Darwin’s theory of evolution – rely on a scant diet of seeds and insects, which regularly dries up. Pecking away at the base of booby flight feathers with their sharp beaks – a trait that may have evolved from feeding on the birds’ parasites – they drink blood to survive. ‘I’ve seen more than half a dozen finches drinking from a single Nazca booby,’ says Tom. Rather than leave and expose their eggs and chicks to the sun, the boobies appear to tolerate the vampires.
  • Pipe owls by Arshdeep Singh, India. Winner 2018, 10 Years and Under. Huddled together at the opening of an old waste-pipe, two spotted owlets look straight into Arshdeep’s lens. He and his father had been driving out of Kapurthala, a city in the Indian state of Punjab, going on a birding trip, when he saw one of them dive into the pipe. His father didn’t believe what he’d seen but stopped the car and backed up. It wasn’t long before one of the owlets popped its head out. Guessing this might be a nest site and keen to photograph such an unusual setting, Arshdeep begged to borrow his father’s camera and telephoto lens. Using skills accrued from photographing birds since he was six years old, Arshdeep rested the lens on the car’s open window and waited.
    Pipe owls by Arshdeep Singh, India. Winner 2018, 10 Years and Under. Huddled together at the opening of an old waste-pipe, two spotted owlets look straight into Arshdeep’s lens. He and his father had been driving out of Kapurthala, a city in the Indian state of Punjab, going on a birding trip, when he saw one of them dive into the pipe. His father didn’t believe what he’d seen but stopped the car and backed up. It wasn’t long before one of the owlets popped its head out. Guessing this might be a nest site and keen to photograph such an unusual setting, Arshdeep begged to borrow his father’s camera and telephoto lens. Using skills accrued from photographing birds since he was six years old, Arshdeep rested the lens on the car’s open window and waited.
  • Hellbent by David Herasimtschuk, USA. Winner 2018, Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles. It was not looking good for the northern water snake, clamped tightly in the jaws of a hungry hellbender, but it was a remarkable find for David. Drifting downstream in Tennessee’s Tellico River, in search of freshwater life (as he had done for countless hours over the past seven years), he was thrilled to spot the mighty amphibian with its struggling prey. North America’s largest aquatic salamander – up to 75 centimetres (29 inches) long – the hellbender has declined significantly because of habitat loss and degradation of the habitat that remains.
    Hellbent by David Herasimtschuk, USA. Winner 2018, Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles. It was not looking good for the northern water snake, clamped tightly in the jaws of a hungry hellbender, but it was a remarkable find for David. Drifting downstream in Tennessee’s Tellico River, in search of freshwater life (as he had done for countless hours over the past seven years), he was thrilled to spot the mighty amphibian with its struggling prey. North America’s largest aquatic salamander – up to 75 centimetres (29 inches) long – the hellbender has declined significantly because of habitat loss and degradation of the habitat that remains.
  • The vision by Jan van der Greef, The Netherlands. Winner 2018, Black and White. Perfectly balanced, its wings vibrating, its tail opening and closing, with its tiny feet touching the spike for just an instant, an eastern mountaineer hummingbird siphons nectar from the florets of a red-hot-poker plant. Positioned by the flower, Jan had anticipated the bird’s behaviour. For a number of days he had been stationed in the garden of his hotel in southern Peru, observing hummingbirds. He noticed that an eastern mountaineer – a species found only in Peru, characterized by its long, black-and-white forked tail – would rotate around the red-hot-poker spikes as it fed. He also saw that, when the bird moved behind a spike and its tail closed for a moment, a beautiful cross appeared. Determining to capture this strange vision, he staked out a spot underneath a single red-hot-poker plant (native to Africa, where it is pollinated by nectar‑drinkers such as sunbirds).
    The vision by Jan van der Greef, The Netherlands. Winner 2018, Black and White. Perfectly balanced, its wings vibrating, its tail opening and closing, with its tiny feet touching the spike for just an instant, an eastern mountaineer hummingbird siphons nectar from the florets of a red-hot-poker plant. Positioned by the flower, Jan had anticipated the bird’s behaviour. For a number of days he had been stationed in the garden of his hotel in southern Peru, observing hummingbirds. He noticed that an eastern mountaineer – a species found only in Peru, characterized by its long, black-and-white forked tail – would rotate around the red-hot-poker spikes as it fed. He also saw that, when the bird moved behind a spike and its tail closed for a moment, a beautiful cross appeared. Determining to capture this strange vision, he staked out a spot underneath a single red-hot-poker plant (native to Africa, where it is pollinated by nectar‑drinkers such as sunbirds).
  • The sad clown by Joan de la Malla, Spain Winner 2018, Wildlife Photojournalism Timbul, a young long-tailed macaque, instinctively puts his hand to his face to try to relieve the discomfort of the mask he has to wear. His owner is training him to stand upright so that he can add more stunts to his street‑show repertoire (the word Badut on the hat means clown). Joan spent a long time gaining the trust of the monkey owners in Surabaya. ‘They are not bad people,’ he says, ‘and by doing street shows, they can afford to send their children to school. They just need other opportunities to make a living.’
    The sad clown by Joan de la Malla, Spain Winner 2018, Wildlife Photojournalism Timbul, a young long-tailed macaque, instinctively puts his hand to his face to try to relieve the discomfort of the mask he has to wear. His owner is training him to stand upright so that he can add more stunts to his street‑show repertoire (the word Badut on the hat means clown). Joan spent a long time gaining the trust of the monkey owners in Surabaya. ‘They are not bad people,’ he says, ‘and by doing street shows, they can afford to send their children to school. They just need other opportunities to make a living.’
  • This image by Robert Irwin, the son of the late Steve Irwin, was highly commended.
    This image by Robert Irwin, the son of the late Steve Irwin, was highly commended.
  • Mother defender by Javier Aznar González de Rueda, Spain. Winner 2018, Wildlife Photographer Portfolio Award. A large Alchisme treehopper guards her family as the nymphs feed on the stem of a nightshade plant in El Jardín de los Sueños reserve in Ecuador. Unlike many treehoppers, which enlist the help of other insects (mostly ants), this species is guarded by the mother alone. She lays her eggs on the underside of a nightshade leaf, covers them with a thin secretion and then shields the clutch with her tiny frame.
    Mother defender by Javier Aznar González de Rueda, Spain. Winner 2018, Wildlife Photographer Portfolio Award. A large Alchisme treehopper guards her family as the nymphs feed on the stem of a nightshade plant in El Jardín de los Sueños reserve in Ecuador. Unlike many treehoppers, which enlist the help of other insects (mostly ants), this species is guarded by the mother alone. She lays her eggs on the underside of a nightshade leaf, covers them with a thin secretion and then shields the clutch with her tiny frame.
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Wildlife Photographer of the Year revealed

18 October 2018

Hosted by the British Natural History Museum, the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018 have recently been announced. Dutch photographer, Marsel van Oosten won the grand title with an image of two golden snub-nosed monkeys taken in the Qinling Mountains of central China. With just 22,000 golden snub-nosed monkeys surviving across the mountains of central China, the primates are considered endangered.

© Marsel van Oosten (The Netherlands). The golden couple. Grand Title Winner, Animal Portraits Winner – Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018. A male Qinling golden snub-nosed monkey rests briefly on a stone seat. He has been joined by a female from his small group. Both are watching intently as an altercation takes place down the valley between the lead males of two other groups in the 50-strong troop. It’s spring in the temperate forest of China’s Qinling Mountains, the only place where these endangered monkeys live. They spend most of the day foraging in the trees, eating a mix of leaves, buds, seeds, bark and lichen, depending on the season.
© Marsel van Oosten (The Netherlands). The golden couple. Grand Title Winner, Animal Portraits Winner – Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018. A male Qinling golden snub-nosed monkey rests briefly on a stone seat. He has been joined by a female from his small group. Both are watching intently as an altercation takes place down the valley between the lead males of two other groups in the 50-strong troop. It’s spring in the temperate forest of China’s Qinling Mountains, the only place where these endangered monkeys live. They spend most of the day foraging in the trees, eating a mix of leaves, buds, seeds, bark and lichen, depending on the season.

The winning image, The Golden Couple, beat over 45,000 entries from 95 countries. The image will feature alongside 99 other photographs documenting the diversity and beauty of nature, at the 54th Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.

“This image is in one sense traditional - a portrait,” said Chair of the judging panel, Roz Kidman Cox. “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.”

© Skye Meaker. Sleeping Beauty. Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year. A leopard waking from sleep in Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.
© Skye Meaker. Sleeping Beauty. Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
A leopard waking from sleep in Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.

Skye Meaker has been awarded Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year, for her portrait of a leopard waking from a slumber in Mashatu Game Reserve, Botswana.

Australian photographer Georgina Steytler won the Invertebrates (behaviour) category, with her image of industrious slender mud-dauber wasps captured at Walyormouring Nature Reserve, WA.

© Georgina Steytler. First place, Invertebrates. Mud-rolling mud-dauber. It was a hot summer day, and the waterhole at Walyormouring Nature Reserve, Western Australia, was buzzing. Georgina had got there early to photograph birds, but her attention was stolen by the industrious slender mud-dauber wasps, distinctive with their stalk-like first abdominal segments. They were females, busy digging in the soft mud at the water’s edge, and then rolling the mud into balls to create egg chambers to add to their nearby nests.
© Georgina Steytler. First place, Invertebrates. Mud-rolling mud-dauber. It was a hot summer day, and the waterhole at Walyormouring Nature Reserve, Western Australia, was buzzing. Georgina had got there early to photograph birds, but her attention was stolen by the industrious slender mud-dauber wasps, distinctive with their stalk-like first abdominal segments. They were females, busy digging in the soft mud at the water’s edge, and then rolling the mud into balls to create egg chambers to add to their nearby nests.

About Marsel van Oosten

Photography started out as an escape for Marsel van Oosten. Working day-to-day for an advertising agency in the Netherlands, he began taking photographs to slow down and get away from it all. But it was during a trip to Tanzania that things got serious.

The close encounters with the wildlife of the Serengeti sparked a deep interest for wildlife photography, which five years later he was able to turn into a living.

For van Oosten, simplicity is the ultimate in sophistication. He uses lighting, composition, colour and perspective to simplify his images, allowing the subject to speak for itself. His work has been critically acclaimed and won many international awards, as well as being regularly featuring in magazines such as National Geographic, Audubon, and Science Illustrated. 

In addition to his photography, van Oosten and his partner run specialised wildlife and landscape photography tours around the world.

This image by Robert Irwin, the son of the late Steve Irwin, was highly commended.
This image by Robert Irwin, the son of the late Steve Irwin, was highly commended.

 

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