Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018

It's Our Responsibility to Protect and Respect the Natural world and Challenge Those Who Threaten It

The annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition may be focused on animals, but the message to humans is loud and clear: It's our responsibility to protect and respect the natural world and challenge those who threaten it.

Bears

This year's competition, which is hosted by the Natural History Museum in London, had more than 45,000 entries from professional and amateur photographers from 95 countries. The winners will be announced this coming October, but the organization selected some of the images as a hint of what's more to come.

Take a look at some of the stunning and breathtaking photos of this year's entries with their detailed caption.

Tiger

1. Tiger

Captured by French photographer Emmanuel Rondeau in Bhutan, who describes the action:

"In a remote forest, high in the Himalayas of central Bhutan, a Bengal tiger fixes his gaze on the camera. The path he treads is part of a network linking the country’s national parks — corridors that are key to the conservation of this endangered subspecies but unprotected from logging and poaching. Emmanuel and a team of rangers climbed rugged terrain, with enough kits to set up eight still and eight video cameras along one route, in the hope of glimpsing a tiger pass by (there were just 103 in Bhutan at the last count). 

Tree Lizard 

2. Tree Lizard 

"When Adam first spotted the Titiwangsa horned tree lizard on the road near his home in the mountains of Pahang, Malaysia, it was in a furious life-and‑death battle with a venomous Malaysian jewel centipede. There was a lot of chasing, writhing and thrashing about, and Adam was so fascinated that he completely forgot about his camera and simply watched. Only when the lizard finally overpowered the centipede did Adam think about framing a picture. — Adam Hakim Hogg

Red Fox

3. Red Fox

"Adrian was exploring the derelict schoolroom when the red fox trotted in, perhaps curious about the human or perhaps just on its rounds. It stopped briefly on the carpet of child-sized gas masks, just long enough for a picture, and then exited through a broken window. The school in Pripyat, Ukraine, was abandoned in 1986, as was the whole city, following the catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, just 3 kilometres (nearly 2 miles) away.  — Adrian Bliss

Sun Bear 

4. Sun Bear 

"As soon as he saw Emily, the sun bear hurried to the front of his filthy cage. 'Every time I moved, he would follow me.' He was just one of several sun bears kept behind the scenes at a zoo in Sumatra, Indonesia, in conditions Emily says were ‘appalling’. Sun bears are the world’s smallest bears, now critically endangered. In the lowland forests of Southeast Asia, they spend much of their time in trees, eating fruit and small animals, using their claws to prise open rotten wood in search of grubs. — Emily Garthwaite

Sargassumfish

5. Sargassumfish

"This Sargassumfish couldn’t hide among the litter. The nearby frond of Sargassum seaweed was a far cry from the free-floating rafts of the seaweed that more normally shelter this frogfish and many other specialized species. A master of camouflage and an ambush predator, the Sargassumfish stalks its prey on claw-like fins through the fronds of these floating islands, concealed by its tan colour and feathery outline. Greg spotted this individual when returning from a dive on the biodiverse reefs of the Indonesian archipelago of Raja Ampat. — Greg Lecoeur

Lioness

6. Lioness

"A lioness drinks from a waterhole in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park. She is one of the Mfuwe Lodge pride – two males, five females and five cubs. Isak had been keeping watch on them while they slept off a feast from a buffalo kill the night before. Isak positioned his vehicle on the opposite side of the waterhole, close to the edge, steadying his long lens in the low light on a bean bag. Sure enough, the lioness appeared through the tall, rainy-season grass and hunched down to drink, occasionally looking up or sideways. — Isak Pretorius

Eurasian Lynx

7. Eurasian Lynx

"It had been more than a year since Julius set up his camera trap in Germany’s Upper Bavarian Forest, and he had got just two records of Eurasian lynx. He was on the brink of giving up when a biologist colleague insisted that this was 'such a typical spot for lynx.' — Julius Kramer

Flamingos

8. Flamingos

"Flying over the Southern Ewaso Ng’iro River delta, on the border of Kenya and Tanzania, Paul was mesmerized by the network of tendrils, tinged green with algae, spreading through the river sediment. A far fainter latticework traced the trails made by lesser flamingos as they fed. Every year for the past 12 years, Paul has flown over the delta, observing its constant reshaping due to fluctuating rainfall and deposits of silt and sand. — Paul Mckenzie

Flying fish and Red Booby

9. Flying fish and Red Booby

"For days, Sue scanned rough seas in the Indian Ocean. ‘We’d often see flying fish,’ she says, ‘but only occasionally would there be boobies.’ Then, one morning — northeast of D’Arros Island in the Outer Islands of the Seychelles — she awoke to find tranquil water and a single juvenile red-footed booby, circling. These ocean‑going birds — the smallest booby species, with a metre-wide (3-foot) wingspan — spend most of their time at sea, flying long distances with ease. Sharp-eyed, they swoop down to seize prey, mainly squid and flying fish. Before breaking the surface to escape predators such as tuna and marlin, flying fish build up tremendous speed under water, to glide, airborne, on their stiff pectoral fins. Sue kept her eye on the bird. Suddenly, a fish leapt out,' she says. 'and down came the booby.' — Sue Forbes

Cobra and Meerkats

10. Cobra and Meerkats

"When an Anchieta’s cobra reared its head and moved towards two meerkat pups near their warren on Namibia’s Brandberg Mountain, the rest of the pack — foraging nearby — reacted almost instantly. Rushing back, the 20-strong group split into two: one group grabbed the pups and huddled a safe distance away, the other took on the snake. Fluffing up their coats, tails raised, the mob edged forwards, growling. — Tertius A Gous

Asian Sheepshead Wrasse

11. Asian Sheepshead Wrasse

"Accentuating his mature appearance with pastel colours, protruding lips, and an outstanding pink forehead, this Asian sheepshead wrasse sets out to impress females and see off rivals, which he will head-butt and bite. It favours rocky reefs in cool waters in the Western Pacific, where it feeds on shellfish and crustaceans, though little more is known about it. In a window of calm, amid high seas, Tony reached Japan’s remote Sado Island, to reveal some of the drama of the wrasses’ lives. — Tony Wu

Walrus

12. Walrus

"It was a bright summer’s night when Valter came across the walruses. They were feeding just off an island in the Norwegian archipelago off Svalbard. Clumsy on land, these weighty giants now moved with ease and speed. Keeping at pole’s length, he was able to take this intimate portrait of the distinctive whiskered faces of a youngster and its watchful mother. Walruses use their highly sensitive whiskers and snout to search out bivalve mollusks (such as clams) and other small invertebrates on the ocean floor. — Valter Bernardeschi

Yellow Pygmy Goby

13. Yellow Pygmy Goby

"On the sandy seabed off the coast of Mabini in the Philippines, a yellow pygmy goby guards its home — a discarded glass bottle. It is one of a pair, each no more than 4 centimetres (1 and a half inches) long, that have chosen a bottle as a perfect temporary home. The female will lay several batches of eggs, while the male performs guard duty at the entrance. — Wayne Jones

“Photography is the beauty of life captured.”

- Tara Chisolm