Loving lions and baby elephants: Images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award show animals at their best
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest is inviting the public to vote for their favourite image selected from a group of shortlisted entries in this year’s competition. Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open until 2 February 2022. Be sure to click through to their site to see the rest of the images. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London
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Titled ‘Shelter from the rain’, the image depicts a tender moment between a pair of male lions at Maasai Mara. Describing the situation, the photographer said that the second lion had briefly approached and greeted his companion before choosing to walk away, but as the rain turned heavy, he returned and sat, positioning his body as if to shelter the other. Shortly after they rubbed faces and continued to sit nuzzling. Image Courtesy: Ashleigh McCord/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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‘Hope in a burned plantation’ shows an Eastern grey kangaroo and her joey, who survived the forest fires in Mallacoota, Australia. Image Courtesy: Jo-Anne McArthur/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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An elephant herd rallies around to protect a few day old baby from the unwanted attention of a Bull Elephant in Addo elephant reserve, South Africa in this touching image titled ‘Bonds of love’. Image Courtesy: Peter Delaney/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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The photographer spent more than one hour observing this mother in the Pinus Jantho Nature Reserve of Sumatra, Indonesia, trying to keep her excitable baby with her in the nest. Since 2011 the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program has released more than 120 confiscated apes into the reserve. This mother, Marconi, was once held captive as an illegal pet, but was nursed back to health and released in 2011. In 2017 she was spotted with a wild born baby, Masen, a symbol of hope for the future population. Image Courtesy: Maxime Aliaga/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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Dantita, as she is fondly known, at the foothills of Braulio Carrillo national park, close to San José in central Costa Rica is snapped in this image called Peek-a-boo. The Baird’s tapir, or ‘gardeners of the forest’, are extremely important to their natural habitat, with some seeds only germinating after passing through the tapir. But owing to threats from deforestation and hunting, there are estimated to be only 6,000 left in the wild. Image Courtesy: Michiel van Noppen/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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In the Lishan Nature Reserve in Shanxi Province, China, these two male golden pheasants continuously swapped places on this trunk – their movements akin to a silent dance in the snow. The birds are native to China, where they inhabit dense forests in mountainous regions. Although brightly coloured, they are shy and difficult to spot, spending most of their time foraging for food on the dark forest floor, only flying to evade predators or to roost in very high trees during the night. Image Courtesy: Qiang Guo/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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This little Arctic fox’s breath was quickly freezing in the air after each call. It was late winter in Spitsbergen, Svalbard, and the cold arctic air was -35°C. Photographing arctic foxes is often frustrating, as they are normally running around fast in search of food, but this one was very relaxed. Image Courtesy: Marco Gaiotti/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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Iberian lynx are one of the world’s most endangered cats due to habitat loss, decreasing food sources, car hits and hunting. The photographer captured this image while leading a conservation project based around photography in Peñalajo, Castilla La Mancha, Spain. He knew a family of lynx used this waterhole, so he rigged up a hide close by. He was lucky enough to capture the moment the cub lifted its head, licked its lips and gazed into the camera. Image Courtesy: Antonio Liebana Navarro/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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Federico Mosquera, a biologist from the Omacha Foundation, Colombia, is captured in this photograph soothing an Amazon river dolphin. These dolphins are tactile animals and direct contact calms them. The team from Omacha and WWF were transporting the dolphin to a temporary veterinarian facility in Puerto Nariño to install a GPS tag in its dorsal fin as part of a project researching river dolphin health and migratory patterns. Image Courtesy: Jaime Rojo/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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A red squirrel in Cairngorms, Scotland captured leaping between the branches. Image Courtesy: Karl Samitsch/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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Zhang Qiang was visiting China’s Qinling Mountains to observe the behaviour of the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey. When it is time to rest, the females and young huddle together for warmth and protection. This image perfectly captures that moment of intimacy. The young monkey’s unmistakable blue face nestled in between two females, their striking golden-orange fur dappled in light. Image Courtesy: Zhang Qiang/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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For grizzly bears this open water in Yukon, Canada offers a final chance to feast before hibernating. It was averaging around -30C and the photographer had been waiting, hoping one particular female bear would use this log to cross. Eventually she did and he got the picture he’d envisioned – her wet fur had frozen into icicles and ‘you could hear them tinkle as she walked past’. Image Courtesy: Andy Skillen/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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Due to industrial logging and land clearing for plantation development, the rainforests of Borneo are disappearing fast. Because of this, endemic species such as the orangutan are suffering and dying and are under serious threat. International Animal Rescue rehabilitates orphaned or injured orangutans, giving them the health care they need and preparing them for reintroduction, when possible. Here, in a forest enclosure, a keeper takes care of babies who are encouraged to mix with others of a similar age, make nests and forage for food. Image Courtesy: Joan de la Malla/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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Dozens of plains zebra had showed up to drink at Okaukuejo waterhole in Etosha national park, Namibia – a popular location for the animals of the area to quench their thirst. Image Courtesy: Lucas Bustamante/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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This group of meerkats in the Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in South Africa are very relaxed around people. In fact, they mostly completely ignored the photographer’s presence, being way too preoccupied with lounging, hunting, grooming and fighting. He was therefore able to get in close and use a wide angle lens to include the arid savannah and mountains they call home. Image Courtesy: Thomas Peschak/2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year
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