Samara Achermann, Young Numbats from the South West (ANIMALS 2026)

I had always wanted to encounter the elusive numbat and my lucky day finally came. I had looked for them over the course of several day trips out to the bush and never had any luck until last year when I came across a few babies. I tried to capture images of them, that show just how easily they can blend into their environment, especially given their tiny size. They would hide away inside hollow logs with their siblings to wait for their mum to come back, but would often venture out to look around for termites and to sunbathe. It was a privilege to be able to watch them from afar for even just a short period of time.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.