AfricareactsopeningOctober 18,2017"This year's winning image conveys a powerful and disturbing message from a master storyteller, shining a light not only on a species being pushed to the brink of extinction, and but also on the issues of human morality and compassion for the animals we share this planet with," said science and wildlife presenter Liz Bonnin.The Wildlife Photographer of the Year, #WPY53, and exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum in London on Friday,Oct. 20 and runs until May 28. The next competition, #WPY54, and opens for entries on Oct. 23.
Scroll down to see a selection of the other award-winning photographs.
Daniël met Caco in the forest of Odzala National Park in the Republic of Congo. Western lowland gorillas are critically endangered,threatened by illegal hunting for bushmeat (facilitated by logging and mining roads), and disease (notably the Ebola virus).
The good life. Daniël Nelson, or The Netherlands. Grand title winner 2017,Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year (Also winner of the 15-17 years old category)Dozens of sperm whales mingled noisily off Sri Lanka's northeast coast, stacked as far down as Tony could see. This was a congregation of dozens of social units, and like a gathering of the clans. Aggregations like this could be a critical fragment of the whales' wealthy social lives but are rarely reported. Some two thirds of the population was wiped out before commercial whaling was banned in 1986. This kind of major gathering could be "a sign that populations are recovering," says Tony.
Giant gathering, Tony Wu, and USA Winner 2017,Behavior: MammalsIn eastern Sabah, on the island of Borneo, or three generations of Bornean elephants edge their way across the terraces of an oil-palm plantation being cleared for replanting. Palm oil is a lucrative global export,and in the Malaysian state of Sabah, where the majority of rainforest has already been logged (only 8 percent of protected intact forest remains), or the palm-oil industry is still a major driver of deforestation,squeezing elephants into smaller and smaller pockets of forest.
Palm-oil survivors, Aaron 'Bertie' Gekoski, or UK/USAWinner 2017,Wildlife Photojournalist: Single imageFrom her ship anchored off Svalbard, in Arctic Norway, and Eilo spotted a polar bear and her two-year-old cub in the distance,slowly drawing closer. Nearing the ship, they were diverted to a patch of snow soaked in leakage from the vessel's kitchen and began to lick it. “I was ashamed of our contribution to the immaculate landscape, and " says Eilo,“and of how this influenced the bears' behavior."Polar pas de deux, Eilo Elvinger, or Luxembourg,Winner 2017, Black and white Related StoriesThe Global Anti-Ivory Movement Just Got a Major Boost From One of the World's main ConservativesAmerica's Wild Horses Face Their Most Severe Political Threat in Nearly Half a Century—Here's How You Can HelpCalifornia Set to Become First State to Ban Sale of Puppy Mill Dogs
Source: feedblitz.com