Comedy Wildlife Photo Finalists Deliver Laughter And Fun With Incredible Animal Images

It’s that time of year again to sit back, relax and get ready to smile. The annual Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards for 2022 have just announced this year’s finalists of their always fun competition of humorous photographs of animals across the globe.

Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards shared their best so far a month ago and since then they’ve judged even more photos to determine the 40 finalists!

The images range from a sly fox giving a wink to his photographer to a squirrel right out of a superhero movie.

Tom Sullam co-founder of the competition said of this year’s finalists: “With so much going on in the world, we could all use a bumper dose of fun and laughter and this year’s finalists have definitely delivered that! When you see these amazing photographs…it makes you smile and wonder at the incredible animals that are on this earth with us, and we love that about the competition.”

Get ready to enjoy a selection of the finalists that are sure to tickle your funny bone.

This sly fox knows what you think of him. Kevin Lohman captured the photo of the fox giving him a wink and wrote that the American Red Fox casually walked up to the edge of the woods and sat down, then turned around and gave a wink before disappearing into the trees.

After getting a shrimp snack from the photographer on a Florida beach, a raccoon gives him a thanks.

A 3-month-old lion cub showed off his not so cat-like reflexes. He was in a tree with his sibling. “The other lionesses were in other trees and on the ground. He wanted to get down and walked all over the branches looking for the right spot and finally just went for it. It was probably his first time in a tree and his descent didn’t go so well. He was just fine though after landing on the ground,” says Jennifer Hadley. “He got up and ran off with some other cubs.”

Talk To The Fin! Jennifer Hadley wins again for her image of penguins. Two gentoo penguins on the Falkland Islands were hanging out on the beach when one shook himself off and gave his mate the snub.

A hippo yawning next to a heron standing on the back of another hippo sure looks different at first glance!

A brown bear cub takes a sniff of a flower in the Finnish taiga in the town of Martinselkonen.

A spotted owlet hides in a pipe and gives an “I CU boy” pose.

Arthur Telle Thiemann was happy the triggerfish didn’t bite him. Instead, they gave him a big smile. “Even they may look funny, these fish can be quite aggressive,” he writes. “In this case they didn’t attempt to bite me, but the domeport of my camera housing ended up with some scratches… life is hard… at least it wasn’t me who was hurt.”

This salmon decide to punch the bear in the face rather than be lunch.

Two King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) at Volunteer Point in the Falklands. The righthand bird may have an inscrutable expression but it must be wondering where its mate’s head has gone.

Apart from its beauty, Cape Hillsborough is renowned for its resident kangaroos and wallabies. Michael Eastwell reveals, “I visited the area for three consecutive sunrises, but it was on my final morning that I captured this beautiful spectacle, two wallabies playing / fighting on the beach as the sun burst through the surrounding clouds.”

Is that Pegasus, the flying horse? Jagdeep Rajput reveals “Actually this is Indian Saras Crane attacking a Bluebull from behind, the bull happened to venture close to Saras’s nest, where in, it had laid a single egg. The Saras Crane, which is tallest flying bird in the world, opened its huge wings and attacked the bull from behind, driving the bull away from the nest.”

“The screech-owl chose to jump instead of flying. He was a bit lazy.”

“Is this bull moose smiling … or getting ready to attack!?”

“I spent a whole morning with this lion pride,” writes photographer Alison Buttigieg, who was visiting Olare Motorogi Conservancy in Kenya. “One of the lionesses made some funny facial expressions after yawning, luckily for me she looked straight into the camera for a moment and I caught this fake smile.”

“Excuse Me… Pardon Me! A duckling walking/waddling across a turtle covered log at the Juanita wetlands. The duckling fell off after a few turtle crossings, it was cute,” said Ryan Sims.

The swan was in the middle of a fight with another swan, chasing him around on a frozen lake in Croatia but it sure looks like he’s imitating the Monty Python’s “funny walk.”

A long-tailed macaque has the expression of tired moms everywhere.

A monkey taking a nap at the Baphuon Temple in Cambodia is checked on by his friend.

“A zebra does a great impression of the 80’s children’s game Buck-a-roo. It also looks like its been fart-powered.”

“We encountered this little squirrel when climbed mountain in June. When noticed our approaching, instead of escaping right away, he just kept standing on the edge of cliff and overlooked into the distance, then turned around to staring at us as if we had interrupted his meditation,” says Lee Zhengxing. “We left him with some biscuits for inconvenience and I took a photo of him telling thanks, just found that he was a lisper.”

This picture of a Picasso Triggerfish was taken in Marsa Shagra, Egypt. The fish just vomited the coral residues that it picked up while nibbling on the coral.

It’s a tight fit for this Eastern Screech Owl and owlet. While in a park in Florida Mark Schocken spotted a nest. “One morning, a few days before the two owlets fledged, one owlet tried to squeeze into the nest hole with Mom, maybe to see the outside world for the first time. It was hilarious….The moment lasted only a few seconds as Mom didn’t seem very happy with the arrangement.”

Your picnic’s mine! That’s what this Southern Cassowary thought when it “sat confidently down on a picnic blanket, it scared all of the picnickers away and start eating up the fish and chips that were laid out before it. I captured this photo just as this cassowary swallowed some food, lending the bird a cheeky and mischievously satisfied look,” says Lincoln Macgregor. But there’s a reason he didn’t try to shoo the bird away. “Cassowaries, touted as the ‘most dangerous bird in the world’, roam the beachfront of Etty Bay [in Australia] on most afternoons, raiding picnics and frightening many unaware tourists.”

Peek-a-boo! A little owl hides in the chimney of a collapsed house in Bulgaria.

Looking like he belongs in the Matrix movie series, a red squirrel jumps during a rainstorm and is captured mid-air.

Each year the competition supports a sustainable conservation organization, with this year’s recipient being the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) a UK charity that supports conservation leaders working in their home countries across the Global South.

To find out more about the Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards, vote for your favorite, and to possibly enter in next year’s competition visit their website at Comedywildlifephoto.com.