Wildlife Photographer of the Year Winning Images Show the Beauty of Life and Death

London’s Natural History Museum contiguous revealed the winners of its Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, and the images are staggering successful their depictions of beingness connected Earth—its majesty, but besides its horrors.

Wildlife photographers get up-close-and-personal with each sorts of wildlife. They seizure animals you mightiness place and those you don’t privation to get adjacent to successful their earthy habitats, showcasing the arresting quality of the satellite astir us, and the galore walks of beingness happening beyond our quality experiences. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. You tin cheque retired immoderate erstwhile winners here, arsenic good arsenic immoderate of the different top wildlife images from this year.

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These 15 photos are a enactment of the winning images, for which an accumulation volition unfastened astatine the Natural History Museum connected Friday. The winners were selected from a record-breaking 59,228 entries to the competition, representing 117 countries and territories. You tin swipe done a enactment of the winning photos (we were lone allowed to usage a handful) successful the assemblage above.

The featured photos see shots of a leopard seal, a slime mold and a springtail, an endangered Australian bilby, an anaconda wrapping itself astir a caiman, a mates images of lynxes successful Canada and Russia, ants devouring a beetle, and more. The earthy satellite contains a singular bevy of beasts, and these award-winning images get to the bosom of the acquisition of beingness connected Earth: beauteous and sometimes serene, but besides unforgiving and brutal.

The contention doesn’t lone dub the images winners, but besides honors those who took the shots. This year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year is Shane Gross, for his changeable of tadpoles surrounded by the stalks of h2o lilies. The representation astatine the apical of the nonfiction is the victor successful the Behavior class spotlighting birds: it shows a young peregrine falcon practicing the creation of the pursuit utilizing a butterfly, seen successful Los Angeles, California. The peregrine falcon tin (somewhat famously) achieve speeds of 200 miles per hr (320km/h) successful its dives during hunts.

The Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year grant went to Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas for his changeable of fruiting slime molds and the springtail—a vein of beingness that you whitethorn not adjacent person known existed until now.

If you’re successful the London area, the grounds opens astatine the Natural History Museum connected Friday. And if you’re looking to research different wildlife from the United Kingdom, the British Wildlife Photography Awards announced its 2024 winners back successful March.