Nature Photographer of the Year winners crowned for 2024
Nature photographers from around the world have captured the best and worst of nature, in the hopes of winning at the Nature Photographer Of The Year Awards.
Scroll through to see the winning images.
Overall winner: Games between siblings
Italian photographer Paolo Della Rocca was named the overall winner for this image of two snow leopards playing in northern India's Spiti Valley.
"For me, this journey has been a lifelong dream, as the snow leopard has always been my favorite wild animal," the photographer said.
Young category winner: Brace!
Inspired by "stunning images" he saw online, New Zealand photographer D'Artagnan Sprengel had been eager to photograph starfish for some time.
"Photographing them proved to be a challenge – not because they moved, but because every half-minute, a wave would roll in and temporarily submerge them," Sprengel said about this photo taken at Port Waikato.
Youth category runner-up: Milky Way
Young Spanish photographer Ismael Domínguez had the idea to experiment with long exposure photography while using a flash.
"To my surprise, a small bat appeared in the frame, flying through the scene," Domínguez said.
Bird category winner: Golden eye
German photographer Luca Lorenz spent a week in coastal region of Camargue in France to photograph birdlife.
"The sun was at its highest point of the day and it was very hot, around 40 degrees in the shade, when I photographed a group of flamingos in a reed bed, filtering the tiniest animals out of the water," Lorenz said.
Bird category runner-up: Shorebird hunt
US photographer Nick Dunlop shot this image of shorebirds on a secluded beach near the Oregon and Washington state line.
"Most days I never saw any action or got poor results," he said.
"Persistence paid off for my image here as I guessed right and was in the right place at the right time to get an intimate shot of a hunting peregrine inside a flock of shorebirds."
Mammal category winner: Games between siblings
The overall winner of the competition, Paolo Della Rocca, also took out the mammal category.
Mammal category runner-up: Path to bath
Sri Lankan photographer Lakshitha Karunarathna found inspiration in a herd of elephants in the country's eastern province.
"After being playful with mud and dust, a herd of Sri Lankan elephants walks towards a waterhole on their daily path," Karunarathna said.
Other animals category winner: Disturbing shadow
French photographer Sebastien Blomme took out the other animals category with this glimpse into the life of a mantis.
"I used the soft morning light to emphasise the silhouette of the Empusa pennata, capturing a shadow that feels both majestic and slightly eerie," the photographer said.
Other animals runner-up: March of the mussels
Theo Bosboom found inspiration in a bed of mussels which he photographed in their natural habitat in the intertidal zone of Praia da Ursa, a beach on the Atlantic west coast of Portugal.
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