Behold the magic of the animal kingdom: Winners of the 2024 Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest revealed

This intriguing image by young Spanish photographer Alberto Roman Gomez, ‘contrasting a delicate stonechat bird with a hefty chain’, is the winner of the 10 Years and Under category. He took the photo of the bird near Spain’s Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park from the window of his father’s car. NHM says: ‘Alberto found this young bird tricky to photograph as it was quickly flying back and forth, gathering insects. The young bird has not yet developed its adult call, which sounds like two stones tapped together’

Parham Pourahmad, a young American photographer, took this incredible photo in Ed R Levin County Park near San Jose, California. Called ‘An Evening Meal’, it shows a young Cooper’s hawk, a common species in North America, eating a squirrel ‘under the last rays of the setting sun’ and is the winner of the 11-14 category. NHM adds: ‘Over a single summer, Parham visited Ed R Levin County Park most weekends to take photographs. He wanted to showcase the variety of wildlife living within a busy metropolitan city, and to illustrate that “nature will always be wild and unpredictable”‘

This quirky image of a common whitethroat in Poland being held by a bird ringer was taken by Polish photographer Liwia Pawlowska, who hopes her photograph ‘helps others get to know this topic better’. NHM says: ‘Volunteers can assist trained staff at bird-ringing sessions, where a bird’s length, sex, condition and age are recorded. Data collected helps scientists to monitor populations and track migratory patterns, aiding conservation efforts.’ The photo is this year’s winner of the Impact Award

Igor Metelskiy, a Russian photographer, captures a ‘lynx stretching in the early evening sunshine, its body mirroring the undulating wilderness’. It took the photographer more than six months to get the shot of the ‘elusive’ animal in Russia’s Lazovsky District, which wins the Animals in their Environment award. NHM adds: ‘A survey carried out in 2013 estimated the entire Russian lynx population was around 22,500 individuals’

Canadian photographer John E.Marriott wins the Animal Portraits award with this powerful image of a lynx ‘sheltering’ its young from the cold wind in Canada’s Yukon region. Marriott tracked the family for a week wearing snowshoes to get this shot. NHM says: ‘Lynx numbers usually reflect the natural population fluctuations of their main prey species, the snowshoe hare. With climate change reducing snow coverage, giving other predators more opportunities to hunt the hares, hare populations may decline, in turn affecting the lynx population’

Jack Zhi, a U.S photographer, took this captivating image of a young falcon ‘practicing its hunting skills’ in Los Angeles. It wins the Behaviour: Birds category. NHM says: ‘Should this young peregrine falcon make it to adulthood, tests have shown it will be capable of stooping, or dropping down on its prey from above, at speeds of more than 300 kilometres per hour (186 miles per hour)’

This adorable image of a young toque macaque sleeping in an adult’s arms in Sri Lanka was captured by Sri Lankan photographer Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod and wins the Behaviour: Mammals award. NHM says: ‘Toque macaques easily adapt to human foods, and the encroachment of plantations into their habitat has seen an increase in incidents of shooting, snaring and poisoning by farmers trying to preserve their crops’

‘Wetland Wrestle’ was shot by U.S photographer Karine Aigner in Brazil. The mesmerising image depicts a yellow anaconda ‘coiling itself around the snout of a caiman’ and wins the Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles award. NHM says: ‘Caimans are generalist feeders and will eat snakes. As anacondas get larger, they will include reptiles in their diet. It’s hard to determine who is the aggressor here. On the snake’s back are two tabanids, blood-sucking horseflies that are known to target reptiles’

Above is a striking photo titled ‘The Demolition Squad’. It was taken by German photographer Ingo Arndt in Germany and wins the Behaviour: Invertebrates category. The image shows the ‘dismemberment of a blue ground beetle by red wood ants’. NHM says: ‘Much of the red wood ants’ nourishment comes from honeydew secreted by aphids, but they also need protein. They are capable of killing insects and other invertebrates much larger than themselves through sheer strength in numbers’

Jiri Hrebicek, a Czech photographer, took this ‘impressionistic’ image of a ‘perching carrion crow’ in a park in Basel, Switzerland. It’s the winner of the Natural Artistry category and Jiri ‘deliberately moved his camera in different directions’ to capture a ‘painterly effect’. NHM says: ‘Carrion crows are intelligent birds that have successfully adapted to living alongside humans, with gardens and parks providing a regular food supply’

Justin Gilligan, an Australian photographer, created this poignant mosaic from 403 pieces of plastic ‘found inside the digestive tract of a dead flesh-footed shearwater’. The image wins the Oceans: The Bigger Picture category. NHM says: ‘Studies found that three-quarters of adult flesh-footed shearwaters breeding on Lord Howe Island – and 100 per cent of fledglings – contained plastic’

This bewitching image of a ‘gnarled old birch tree adorned with pale “old man’s beard” lichens’ was taken by Italian photographer Fortunato Gatto in Glen Affric in the Scottish Highlands. It wins the ‘Plants and Fungi’ category. NHM says: ‘Fortunato often visits the Glen Affric ancient pinewoods alone to lose himself in its intricate, chaotic, timeless beauty. The pale “old man’s beard” lichens indicate that it’s an area of minimal air pollution. Glen Affric is home to the highest concentration of native trees in the UK, making it a vital ecosystem’

This photo of a ‘curious leopard seal’ in Antarctica was taken by British-Australian photographer Matthew Smith. He used a ‘specially made extension’ for his underwater equipment to capture the image, which wins the competition’s Underwater category. NHM says: ‘Though leopard seals are widespread and abundant, overfishing, retreating sea ice and warming waters mean that krill and penguins – their main food sources – are both in decline’

This breathtaking image shows a tiger resting above a town in India’s Western Ghats mountain range. It was captured by German photographer Robin Darius Conz and wins the Urban Wildlife category. NHM says: ‘The protected areas in the Western Ghats, where tigers are carefully monitored, are some of the most biodiverse landscapes in India and have a stable population of tigers. Outside these areas, where development has created conflict between humans and wildlife, tiger occupancy has declined’

This powerful image of a London Metropolitan police officer ‘dusting a confiscated tusk for prints’ was captured by German/UK photographer Britta Jaschinski at London’s Heathrow Airport. It wins the Photojournalism award. NHM says: ‘Newly developed magnetic powder allows experts to obtain fingerprints from ivory up to 28 days after it was touched, increasing the chances of identifying those involved in its illegal trade’

This stunning image of an Amazon River dolphin was snapped by German/South African photographer Thomas Peschak. The image, which wins the Photojournalist Story award, was taken in an area ‘where local communities are creating opportunities for tourists to encounter the dolphins’, says NHM. It adds: ‘This brings another set of problems: when they’re fed by humans, the dolphins become unhealthy and younger individuals don’t learn to hunt for themselves. Traditional Amazonian beliefs hold that the dolphins can take on human form, and they are both revered and feared. Others see them as thieves who steal fish from nets and should be killed’

Sage Ono, a U.S photographer, wins the Rising Star Portfolio award with this captivating image of ‘tube-snout fish eggs’ in California. NHM says: ‘[They] will fade in colour as the embryos develop. But for now, they sparkle like gems next to the kelp’s gold, glowing, gas-filled buoyancy aids’

This cute image of a rabbit-like ninu ‘framed’ by ‘wire grass and shrubs’ in South Australia was captured by Australian photographer Jannico Kelk and wins this year’s Impact Award. NHM says: ‘The greater bilby has many Aboriginal names, including ninu. It was brought to near extinction through predation by introduced foxes and cats. Within fenced reserves where many predators have been eradicated, the bilby is thriving’

This breathtaking image of a tiny springtail insect looking at a slime mould was taken by German photographer Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas and is the winner of the 15-17 years category. It also nets the artist the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. NHM says: ‘Springtails can jump many times their body length in a split second. Alexis used a technique called focus stacking, where 36 images, each with a different area in focus, are combined. Springtails are barely two millimetres long (less than a tenth of an inch)’

This is the image that nets Canadian photographer Shane Gross the winners medal for the Wetlands: The Bigger Picture category and earns him the Wildlife Photographer of the Year accolade. He took this photo of swimming western toad tadpoles in Vancouver Island’s Cedar Lake. NHM explains: ‘Shane snorkelled in the lake for several hours through carpets of lily pads. This prevented any disturbance of the fine layers of silt and algae covering the lake bottom, which would have reduced visibility.’ It adds that an ‘estimated 99 per cent of the tadpoles will not survive to adulthood’