Photography

The remarkable winners of the 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The remarkable winners of the 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Overall Winner 2019, plus Winner in Behaviour: Mammals. Early spring on the alpine meadowland of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, in China’s Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve
Overall Winner 2019, plus Winner in Behaviour: Mammals. Early spring on the alpine meadowland of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, in China’s Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve
View 15 Images
Winner - Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio Award. More than 5,000 male emperor penguins huddle against the wind and late winter cold on the sea ice of Antarctica’s Atka Bay, in front of the Ekström Ice Shelf
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Winner - Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio Award. More than 5,000 male emperor penguins huddle against the wind and late winter cold on the sea ice of Antarctica’s Atka Bay, in front of the Ekström Ice Shelf
Winner - Rising Star Portfolio Award. Pushing against each other, two male Dall’s sheep in full winter-white coats stand immobile at the end of a fierce clash on a windswept snowy slope
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Winner - Rising Star Portfolio Award. Pushing against each other, two male Dall’s sheep in full winter-white coats stand immobile at the end of a fierce clash on a windswept snowy slope
Winner - Wildlife Photojournalist Story Award. Riku, a Japanese macaque legally captured from the wild, has performed comedy skits three times a day in front of large audiences at the Nikkō Saru Gundan theatre north of Tokyo for the past 17 years
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Winner - Wildlife Photojournalist Story Award. Riku, a Japanese macaque legally captured from the wild, has performed comedy skits three times a day in front of large audiences at the Nikkō Saru Gundan theatre north of Tokyo for the past 17 years
Winner - Wildlife Photojournalism: Single Image. An enormous image of a male jaguar is projected onto a section of the US-Mexico border fence, symbolizing the disruption to animal migration caused the fence
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Winner - Wildlife Photojournalism: Single Image. An enormous image of a male jaguar is projected onto a section of the US-Mexico border fence, symbolizing the disruption to animal migration caused the fence
Winner - Earth’s Environments. Red-hot lava tongues flow into the Pacific Ocean, from the biggest eruption for 200 years of one of the world’s most active volcanos – Kîlauea, on Hawaii’s Big Island
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Winner - Earth’s Environments. Red-hot lava tongues flow into the Pacific Ocean, from the biggest eruption for 200 years of one of the world’s most active volcanos – Kîlauea, on Hawaii’s Big Island
Winner - Plants and Fungi. Festooned with bulging orange velvet, trimmed with grey lace, the arms of a Monterey cypress tree weave an otherworldly canopy over Pinnacle Point, in Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California, USA
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Winner - Plants and Fungi. Festooned with bulging orange velvet, trimmed with grey lace, the arms of a Monterey cypress tree weave an otherworldly canopy over Pinnacle Point, in Point Lobos State Natural Reserve, California, USA
Overall Winner 2019, plus Winner in Behaviour: Mammals. Early spring on the alpine meadowland of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, in China’s Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve
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Overall Winner 2019, plus Winner in Behaviour: Mammals. Early spring on the alpine meadowland of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, in China’s Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve
Joint Winner - Behaviour: Mammals. Puma (Puma concolor) female hunting huge adult male guanaco, Torres del Paine area, Patagonia, Chile
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Joint Winner - Behaviour: Mammals. Puma (Puma concolor) female hunting huge adult male guanaco, Torres del Paine area, Patagonia, Chile
Winner - Behaviour: Invertebrates. Army ants are nomadic and assemble temporary bivouac nests out of their own bodies. The precise shape of these bivouacs emerges from the local interactions between the ants and their physical environment.
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Winner - Behaviour: Invertebrates. Army ants are nomadic and assemble temporary bivouac nests out of their own bodies. The precise shape of these bivouacs emerges from the local interactions between the ants and their physical environment.
Winner - Behaviour: Birds. High on a ledge in northern Norway
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Winner - Behaviour: Birds. High on a ledge in northern Norway
Winner - Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles. The mass migration of common frogs in South Tyrol, Italy
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Winner - Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles. The mass migration of common frogs in South Tyrol, Italy
Winner - Animal Portraits. A rare ant-mimicking crab spider, photographed amidst a red weaver ant colony in the subtropical forest of India’s Buxa Tiger Reserve, in West Bengal
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Winner - Animal Portraits. A rare ant-mimicking crab spider, photographed amidst a red weaver ant colony in the subtropical forest of India’s Buxa Tiger Reserve, in West Bengal
Winner - 15-17 years old. A female gelada, with a week-old infant clinging to her belly, on the high plateau in Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains National Park
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Winner - 15-17 years old. A female gelada, with a week-old infant clinging to her belly, on the high plateau in Ethiopia’s Simien Mountains National Park
Winner - Animals in Their Environment. A small herd of male chiru leaves a trail of footprints on a snow-veiled slope in the Kumukuli Desert of China’s Altun Shan National Nature Reserve
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Winner - Animals in Their Environment. A small herd of male chiru leaves a trail of footprints on a snow-veiled slope in the Kumukuli Desert of China’s Altun Shan National Nature Reserve
Winner Young Photographer of the Year. A glowing big fin reef squid
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Winner Young Photographer of the Year. A glowing big fin reef squid
View gallery - 15 images

The winners of the fifty-sixth Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition have been revealed, with the overall prize awarded to an incredible shot of a fox and marmot facing off in a life or death moment. The impressive array of winning images affirm this long-running contest as the premiere global wildlife photography competition.

The winning image, titled The Moment, was taken by native Tibetan photographer Yongqing Bao. The impeccably timed shot preciously balances whimsy and terror as a Tibetan fox comes face to face with a marmot on the rarely photographed Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China.

“Photographically, it is quite simply the perfect moment,” says Roz Kidman Cox, chair of this year’s judging panel. “The expressive intensity of the postures holds you transfixed, and the thread of energy between the raised paws seems to hold the protagonists in perfect balance.”

Winner Young Photographer of the Year. A glowing big fin reef squid
Winner Young Photographer of the Year. A glowing big fin reef squid

The top prize for Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year went to 14 year-old Cruz Erdmann, who has already logged nearly 200 dives after receiving his diver certification at the age of 10 and quickly becoming fascinated with underwater photography. His winning shot, of a psychedelically iridescent big fin reef squid, was taken in the Lembeh Strait off North Sulawesi, Indonesia.

“To dive in the pitch dark, find this beautiful squid and to be able to photograph it so elegantly, to reveal its wonderful shapes and colors, takes so much skill,” says Theo Bosboom, a nature photographer on this year’s judging panel. “What a resounding achievement for such a young photographer.”

Winner - Wildlife Photojournalist Story Award. Riku, a Japanese macaque legally captured from the wild, has performed comedy skits three times a day in front of large audiences at the Nikkō Saru Gundan theatre north of Tokyo for the past 17 years
Winner - Wildlife Photojournalist Story Award. Riku, a Japanese macaque legally captured from the wild, has performed comedy skits three times a day in front of large audiences at the Nikkō Saru Gundan theatre north of Tokyo for the past 17 years

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. Take a look through our gallery at some of the spectacular winning images.

Source: Natural History Museum

View gallery - 15 images
3 comments
3 comments
guzmanchinky
Just such an incredible shot.
Nelson Hyde Chick
Enjoy irt while we can because by the time humanity has grown by a couple billion more the only life on this planet will be us humans, the species we exploit and the pests we can't eradicate. Go anthropocene!
ljaques
Pic #7 I can just hear that marmot screaming out "Don't muck around, buckaroo. I'll rip your face off!"
Pic #14 The chiru in the snowy desert was amazing and magical, too.
Pic #9 of army ants gives me the heebie jeebies.
Pic #4 is what you get when people behave badly. The animals suffer as a result.
Pic #10 is my favorite, the beautiful hawk over Norway.