The winners of the 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest, which showcases the most beautiful, bizarre or exceptional photographs of creatures and their habitats around the world, from the icy plateaus of Tibet to the streets of Manhattan, have already been revealed.
The contest, created by the Natural History Museum in London, has turned 55.
This year’s contest featured more than 48,000 entries from professionals and amateurs from more than 100 countries around the globe. The winning images were selected from 19 categories, each representing a different facet of nature or wildlife photography, including “Wildlife Photojournalism”, “Urban Wildlife” or “Underwater”.
This year’s top prize, the Grand Title winner, has been awarded to Yongqing Bao for his photograph of a watershed moment between a Tibetan fox ( Vulpes ferrilata ) and a marmot caught in an awkward altercation on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. The image was chosen for its humorous clash of anthropomorphic drama and natural rawness. One of the two protagonists in this photo, the Tibetan fox is little known because they live in the remote and incredibly cold plateaus of Nepal, China, India and Bhutan, which is why capturing a photograph of a specimen of this species with such clarity and drama it is quite an achievement.
“The images of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are quite rare, but to have captured such a powerful interaction between a Tibetan fox and a marmot, two key species for the ecology of this high grassland region, is extraordinary, ” said Roz Kidman Cox, president of the jury, in a press release.
“This compelling image captures nature’s ultimate challenge: it is the battle for survival, ” said museum director Michael Dixon.
The Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award went to Cruz Erdmann, 14, for his stunning image of a reef squid ( Sepioteuthis lessoniana ) in the Lembeh Strait, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The most curious thing of all is that, apparently, it was the first time that this young photographer had seen a live squid.
These photographs have been the winners of the different categories of the prestigious “Wildlife Photographer of the Year” award organized each year by the Natural History Museum of London.
