Hunting is a crucial skill for young cheetahs. A trio of cheetah cubs practicing their predator prowess successfully nabbed a young dik-dik in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. Photographer Marina Cano captured the intense moment before the siblings killed the prey in a stunning image (seen below) that that took Highly Commended honors in the Mammals: Behavior category at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Mammals
Marina watched the three young cheetahs practise their hunting skills while their mother looked on – a crucial stage in their journey to independence. The dik-dik was tossed into the air and killed just seconds after Marina took the photograph.
Cheetah cubs spend their first two months hidden in a lair while their mother hunts. At around a year old, they begin joining her, learning how to stalk and which prey to pursue.
Credit: Marina Cano / Wildlife Photographer of the Year MARINA CANO
The prestigious competition is now in its 61st year and is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.
“Selected from a record-breaking over 60,000 images, this preview presents just a small insight into the 100 awe-inspiring, impactful and moving images in store for visitors to our exhibition in October,” Kathy Moran, Chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Jury, said in a press release. “ As an advocate for the power of photography, there is nothing more rewarding or moving than seeing our relationship to the natural world, in all its complexity and splendour, shared on the world’s biggest platform for wildlife photography.”
The category winners, Grand Title, and Young Grand Title awards will be announced on October 14 at a ceremony hosted by wildlife TV presenters and conservationists Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin. The ceremony will be available to watch live on the Natural History Museum’s YouTube channel.
Highly Commended, 11 – 14 Years
Parham followed this pair – a female and possibly her brother – for a couple of hours across the rocky hillside, quickly framing his image before the male turned to nuzzle the female.
Coyotes can adapt to almost any habitat and are abundant across North America and into Central America. Once common in San Francisco, they had disappeared from the city but are now beginning to return. While they do scavenge food waste, their diet also includes rodents and other small mammals.
Credit: Parham Pourahmad / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Highly Commended, Urban Wildlife
Working in total darkness, Sitaram manually focused his lens at the distance where he guessed the bats might appear, relying on his flash to illuminate the scene. All the while, bats were, in his words, ‘randomly pooping on me and the camera’.
Old World fruit bats are common across southern Asia. During the day, they roost in cavities such as hollow trees, caves and deserted buildings. Sitaram says that no matter how big our urban structures are, once we leave them, ‘eventually nature reclaims its space’.
Credit: Sitaram Raul / Wildlife Photographer of the Year SITARAM RAUL
Highly Commended, 15 – 17 Years
While on holiday in southern France, Leana had been watching flamingos in the Camargue. She was fascinated by their foraging behaviour as they moved gracefully through the shallow, saline wetlands, filter feeding for molluscs and crustaceans.
Flamingos use their tongues to force water through their specially adapted bills, which are lined with many rows of fine, comb-like plates. These help trap a species of brine shrimp called Artemia salina that gives the birds their famous pink hue.
Credit: Leana Kuster / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Highly Commended, Photojournalism
For over three years, Lakshitha has documented human–elephant conflict in Sri Lanka. This image is the result of months of meticulous observation at two open rubbish tips, where herds regularly forage.
Around 20 elephants died over an eight-year period at a single site in Ampara after consuming indigestible food wrappers and other plastic waste. Alongside global efforts to reduce plastic use, conservationists stress the urgent need to secure landfills and prevent wildlife from accessing harmful materials.
Credit: Lakshitha Karunarathna / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Highly Commended, Underwater
To try to protect himself from stings while taking this photograph, Ralph smeared petroleum jelly on any skin not covered by his wetsuit. The trailing tentacles can deliver a painful sting, which Ralph says feels more like that of a bee than a nettle.
Highly adaptable to warming seas, jellyfish are appearing in larger numbers. Some biologists argue that more frequent smacks are a sign of rising ocean temperatures. The removal of predators and competitors through overfishing is another contributing factor.
Credit: Ralph Pace / Wildlife Photographer of the Year.jpg Ralph Pace
Highly Commended, 11–14 Years
Kesshav waited days for this image to come together: a brown bear strolling along the shore of Kurile Lake as the Iliinsky volcano emerged from the clouds. A slaty-backed gull flew past, aligned with the volcano’s summit.
Generally solitary, the bear was heading to feast with others on the glut of sockeye salmon migrating upriver to their origin lake to spawn. This caldera lake, formed in the crater made by a volcanic eruption, is the largest sockeye salmon spawning ground in Eurasia.
Credit: Kesshav Vikram / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Highly Commended, Wetlands: The Bigger Picture
Wrapping his feet around a drowned tree, Isaac photographed this female longnose gar with several males during the mating season. The presence of the turtle was, for Isaac, the ‘icing on the cake’, as it ‘gives a sense of the
whole ecosystem’.
This river is one of more than 1,000 waterways fed by freshwater springs renowned for their clarity. Maintaining the aquifers that supply these springs is vital not only for iconic wildlife such as manatees, but also for providing drinking water to nearly half of Florida.
Credit: Isaac Szabo / Wildlife Photographer of the Year Isaac Szabo
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Mammals
Energy levels among the lions were low in the scorching midday sun. Gabriella and her guide, David, were about to move on when David spotted movement – a cobra was slithering towards two sleeping lions. Within seconds, the eldest of the pair was facing down the venomous intruder.
Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park is renowned for its large population of lions, with around 3,000 individuals living there. Lions are estimated to sleep for up to 20 hours a day to conserve energy.
Credit: Gabriella Comi / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Highly Commended, Urban Wildlife
Traffic slowed to a crawl as this sloth crossed the road, eventually reaching a fence post and gripping firmly. Concerned about not adding to the animal’s stress, Emmanuel patiently waited for people to leave the area before quickly taking this photo.
As their habitats become increasingly fragmented, sloths are forced to make more ground crossings to reach the safety of the next tree. In response, the Costa Rican government is working with local NGOs to establish biological corridors, including aerial bridges that reconnect their forest homes.
Credit: Emmanuel Tardy / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Highly Commended, Natural Artistry
Kutub found these blueberry-like spheres – the reproductive parts of a slime mould, each just 1–2 millimetres in diameter – in a nearby forest. His image resembles a fantasy landscape, though he describes the scene as a ‘bizarre family portrait’, complete with a tiny yellow insect egg.
A slime mould is a community of mobile single-celled, amoeba-like organisms that live independently until they come together and work as one to find food and reproduce.
Credit: Kutub Uddin / Wildlife Photographer of the Year kutub uddin
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Invertebrates
Bidyut spotted this potter wasp building a mud chamber on a picture frame in his home in Goalpara, northeast India. Noticing it coming and going several times a day, he wedged the door open to allow it access until he finally saw it returning with prey gripped in its jaws.
Once the chamber is complete, the wasp sets about packing it with caterpillars paralysed by a sting, to provide live food for the developing larvae within.
Credit: Bidyut Kalita / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Highly Commended, Animals in their Environment
Bertie spent two months with the penguin colony and witnessed most chicks using ice ramps to descend to sea level for food. But this group missed the easy way down. Keeping his drone at a safe distance, he watched as they took a 15-metre (49-foot) leap into the water.
Left to fend for themselves, emperor penguin chicks must find a way to make their first dip into the icy ocean to find food. Scientists believe the continued decline of sea ice in Antarctica may force more penguins to breed on ice shelves, making this behaviour increasingly common in the future.
Credit: Bertie Gregory / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Highly Commended, Animal Portraits
In temperatures of -35°C (-31°F), Amit struggled to fulfil his dream of photographing the elusive Arctic wolves of Ellesmere Island. But then, on the twelfth day of his second trip, they came closer than he had ever imagined, so close that he could smell their breath.
Restricted to Canada’s most northern territories and northern Greenland, Arctic wolves are curious of humans due to a lack of interaction. They’re a snow-white subspecies of the grey wolf, pack animals that hunt hares and musk oxen.
Credit: Amit Eshel / Wildlife Photographer of the Year