Baby Manatee And Leaping Stoat Among 14 Highly Commended Photos In Wildlife Photographer Of The Year

An adorable baby manatee, a leaping stoat, and seals napping on the ice are a sneak peek of the wildlife images to be honored by the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 competition. Capturing extraordinary moments of animals (and photographers) around the world, these highly commended shots offer a preview ahead of the finalists, who will be revealed later this autumn by The Natural History Museum in London.

Twist and Jump by Jose Manuel Grandío, Spain

Jose Manuel Grandío braves below-zero temperatures to witness a stoat jumping high into the air above the snow. Winter is Jose’s favorite season for photography. When he spotted this stoat jumping mid-air on the last day of his trip, he saw this performance as an ‘expression of exuberance’ as the small mammal hurled itself about in a fresh fall of snow.

Scientists refer to this behaviour as dancing, although opinions are divided about what motivates it, from an attempt to confuse prey through to a parasitic infection. Stoats are usually active at night and prey on small mammals and birds.

As Clear as Crystal by Jason Gulley, USA

Jason Gulley gazes through clear water at a manatee and a calf adrift among the eelgrass. Jason has photographed many manatee mother-and-calf pairs. The expression on this calf’s face and the bubbles trailing from its flippers, combined with the hopeful backstory, have made it one of Jason’s favorite images.

Here in the Crystal River, an algal bloom caused by agricultural runoff led to a decline in the eelgrass beds that the manatees eat. The local community acted, restoring the habitat and improving water quality, resulting in more manatees than ever being recorded in the winter of 2022/2023.

These seagrasses were replanted in Florida’s Crystal River as part of an ongoing restoration project in November 2021. Decades of pollution fueled algae that choked out the seagrasses that were the foundation of Crystal River’s underwater ecoystem and the primary food source for manatees. Over the last five years, community organizations and restoration biologists banded together to clean up the pollution and replant more than 400,000 square meters of seagrass. Manatees now use Crystal River year-round as a nursery to raise calfs.

In other parts of the Florida, water pollution has wiped out seagrasses, triggering mass die offs as thousands of manatees starved to death. Crystal River’s restoration provides a roadmap for fixing problems in other parts of the state and hope for the future.

Editor’s note: Sadly, it was recently reported that 130 dead manatee calves were found in Florida around the Indian River Lagoon as of Aug. 23, 2024. That’s nearly twice the five-year average to date. Scientists are contributing the infant deaths to the mass die-off of adults that reached their peak three years ago, before the conservation efforts. The good news is that there were many live calves reported as well.

Centre of Attention by Georgina Steytler, Australia

Georgina Steytler observes a ball of male Dawson’s burrowing bees vying for access to a female near near Carnarvon, Western Australia, Australia. Georgina has been studying these bees for a few years and knew she had to keep her distance. Lying on the hot, rocky, sun-baked ground with sand blowing in her face, her long lens enabled her to get the perfect image.

When female Dawson’s burrowing bees emerge in spring, they are surrounded by males competing to mate with them. After mating, the female bee will dig a new burrow filled with pollen and eggs, from which the hatched bees will emerge in spring.

Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Shreyovi Mehta finds two Indian peafowl ‘looking perfect for a picture’. Shreyovi was walking in the forest with her parents when she spotted this scene. She ran back to her dad, who was carrying the cameras, then got down on the ground to take her photograph from a low angle.

Renowned for its birdlife, Keoladeo in India attracts large numbers of water birds in winter. Peafowl are year-round residents that roost in large trees. They rest in the shade during the day and are more active in open areas at dawn and dusk.

Leaving the Nest by Sasha Jumanca, Germany/Romania

Sasha Jumanca finds two tawny owlets curiously watching people walking by. Sasha had been watching these tawny owlets for several days in a park near his home. He had seen tawny owls in the neighborhood before but was surprised to discover these so close to the heart of the city. Owlets leave the nest before they can fly, in a phase known as ‘branching’. They will jump, flutter and climb around branches of nearby trees for several weeks while begging for food from their parents, before they eventually fledge and fly away.

Precious Rocks by Samual Stone, UK

Samual Stone watches as a jackdaw brings stones to its nest. Samual had been keeping an eye on the hole in the trunk of a half-fallen willow tree in London’s Bushy Park – he’d seen a pair of jackdaws visiting with their beaks full of hair taken from the coats of local deer.

Jackdaws are highly intelligent and adaptable. They build new nests each year, from all sorts of materials: twigs, branches, feathers, wool, moss, mud and animal dung. This pair kept adding rocks to theirs.

Strength in Numbers by Theo Bosboom, The Netherlands

Theo Bosboom shows how mussels bind together to avoid being washed away from the shoreline in Praia da Ursa, Sintra, Portugal.

Theo likes to take images of species that aren’t usually considered beautiful or important, to highlight their unappreciated significance.

Mussels play an important role in creating dynamic ecosystems for other marine invertebrates such as crustaceans, worms and even small fish. They improve the water quality by filter-feeding, extracting plankton as well as bacteria and toxins, which prevents them from building up to dangerous levels.

Going with the Floe by Tamara Stubbs, UK

Tamara Stubbs spots these crabeater seals taking a nap among the sea ice. In a standout moment on her nine-week expedition in the Weddell Sea, Tamara noticed that seals had fallen asleep alongside the ship, with the tips of their nostrils at the water’s surface. These two had bobbed up so they could take a deeper breath.

There are around four million crabeater seals in the Antarctic. Although they are not considered endangered or under threat, the seals are protected by international conservation agreements. More research is needed to understand the impact of climate change and tourism on their populations.

Hooked by Tommy Trenchard, South Africa

Tommy Trenchard documents the bycatch of a requiem shark, its body arched in a final act of resistance. Tommy was travelling on the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise. The ship’s research expedition aimed to document the bycatch or accidental capture of sharks by fishing boats targeting tuna and swordfish, and to highlight the lack of effective regulation of industrial-scale fishing in international waters.

Approximately 80 million sharks are taken from the world’s oceans every year. Because of fishing, numbers of sharks worldwide have dropped since 1970. Three quarters of all shark species are now at risk of extinction.

Stormy Scene by William Fortescue, UK

William Fortescue uses a backdrop of storm clouds lit by the setting sun to show mating lions. It was the rainy season when William visited the Serengeti National Park. He watched the lions mate several times before the female broke it off. It wasn’t until William viewed an enlarged image that he noticed the saliva trails and the explosion of insects from the male’s mane.

Lions can mate throughout the year, but synchronising the births of cubs increases the reproductive success of a pride. Female pride members display cooperative behaviors, including raising cubs together to ensure their survival into adulthood.

Ziggy Spider by Lam Soon Tak, Malaysia

Lam Soon Tak spots a vibrantly colored David Bowie spider carrying an egg sac. Lam was exploring the highlands of Malaysia when he came across this spider. Perched on broken branches beside a river, the bright white disc of eggs in the spider’s jaws and its orange body stood out against the lush green moss.

Found in Malaysia, Singapore and the Indonesian island of Sumatra, this spider was named in 2008 by arachnologist and Bowie fan Dr Peter Jäger. He thought the striking markings up to the spider’s head region resembled the make-up worn by the singer during the 1970s.
The Last Resting Place by Randy Robbins, USA

Randy Robbins is struck by the unusual beauty of the frosted form of this deer on the forest floor.

On an early winter’s morning, Randy was checking the trail cameras near his home in Susanville, California when he found the body of this deer. He photographed this poignant moment using his smartphone before the ice could melt. “The successful completion of the circle of life. This doe raised several sets of fawns on my property over several years, and I regularly recorded their antics on my trail cameras and in person. In December of 2020 she laid down by a log and went to sleep for her final rest. It did not appear that any predation or any foul play was involved, it was simply her time,” Randy wrote.

The Disappearing Ice Cap by Thomas Vijayan, Canada

Thomas Vijayan utilises his drone to show the epic scale of the Bråsvellbreen glacier. Encapsulating the magnificence of the Austfonna ice cap required meticulous planning and favourable weather conditions. Thomas’s image, a stitched panorama of 26 individual frames, provides a spectacular summer view of meltwater plunging over the edge of the Bråsvellbreen glacier.

The Bråsvellbreen glacier is part of Austfonna, Europe’s third largest ice cap. This dome of ice is one of several that covers the land area of the Svalbard archipelago. Some scientific models suggest that Svalbard’s glaciers could disappear completely within 400 years due to climate change.

Deadly Bite by Ian Ford, UK

Ian Ford documents the moment a jaguar delivers a fatal bite to a caiman in the Pantanal. A call over the radio alerted Ian that a jaguar had been spotted prowling the banks of a São Lourenço River tributary. Kneeling in the boat, he was perfectly placed when the cat delivered the skull-crushing bite to the unsuspecting yacare caiman.

The South American Pantanal wetland supports the highest density of jaguars anywhere in the world. With prey being so abundant, there is no need to compete for food, and the usually solitary big cats have been seen fishing, travelling and playing together.

“It was a successful life avoiding predators and raising young,” he continued. “I see this image as a reminder of the fragility of life and the grand design of it all. At the end of her journey, she is returning nutrients to the earth that will in turn provide life. I was hesitant to even take the photo, but the frost and snow added such a surreal element to the scene, I couldn’t resist. The image seems to capture the beauty of this animal and adds a tranquil, peaceful element to a subject that is often seen as taboo. Beautiful even in death, her life and its peaceful end is a reminder that it will indeed end for all of us, and that the simple acts of raising young, avoiding danger, and finding peace is at the core of what every species instinctively longs for.”

Moonlight Hunter by Xingchao Zhu, China

Xingchao Zhu comes face to face with a Pallas’s cat as the moon sets. Xingchao tracked a group of Pallas’s cats on the freezing plateau of Inner Mongolia for several days during the Chinese New Year in February 2023. Shortly before dawn, Xingchao managed to make eye contact with this cat, just as it had caught a small bird.

The thick winter coats of Pallas’s cats help them survive at altitudes up to 5,000 metres (16,400 feet). They avoid larger predators by stealth, and it’s thought that their low, rounded ears allow them to peer over obstacles while remaining hidden.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.