French underwater photographer and biologist Laurent Ballesta’s shot of a rare underwater spawning that only takes place around a full moon once a year has been named as the overall winner.
Here are some more of the winning images from this year’s competition, which will be exhibited at the Natural History Museum, London, from Friday (October 15).
13. Winner, 15-17 Years - High-flying jay by Lasse Kurkela
Lasse Kurkela (Finland) watches a Siberian jay fly to the top of a spruce tree to stash its food. Lasse wanted to give a sense of scale in his photograph of the Siberian jay, tiny among the old-growth spruce-dominated forest. He used pieces of cheese to get the jays accustomed to his remotely controlled camera and to encourage them along a particular flight path. Siberian jays use old trees as larders. Their sticky saliva helps them glue food such as seeds, berries, small rodents and insects high up in the holes and crevices of the bark and among hanging lichens. Photo: Lasse Kurkela
14. Winner, Animal Portraits - Reflection by Majed Ali
Majed Ali (Kuwait) glimpses the moment a mountain gorilla closes its eyes in the rain. Majed trekked for four hours to meet Kibande, an almost 40-year-old mountain gorilla. ‘The more we climbed, the hotter and more humid it got,’ Majed recalls. As cooling rain began to fall, Kibande remained in the open, seeming to enjoy the shower. Mountain gorillas are a subspecies of the eastern gorilla, and are found at altitudes over 1,400 metres in two isolated populations – at the Virunga volcanoes and in Bwindi. These gorillas are endangered due to habitat loss, disease, poaching and habitat disruption caused by human activity. Photo: Majed Ali
15. Winner, 10 Years and Under - Dome home by Vidyun R Hebbar, India
Vidyun R Hebbar (India) watches a tent spider as a tuk-tuk passes by. Exploring his local theme park, Vidyun found an occupied spider’s web in a gap in a wall. A passing tuk-tuk (motorised rickshaw) provided a backdrop of rainbow colours to set off the spider’s silk creation., Tent spiders are tiny – this one had legs spanning less than 15 millimetres. They weave non-sticky, square-meshed domes, surrounded by tangled networks of threads that make it difficult for prey to escape. Instead of spinning new webs every day, the spiders repair existing ones. Photo: Vidyun R Hebbar
16. Winner, 11-14 Years - Sunflower songbird by Andrés Luis Dominguez Blanco, Spain
Andrés Luis Dominguez Blanco (Spain) enjoys the splendour of the sunflowers and a melodious warbler singing its heart out. As light faded at the end of a warm May afternoon, Andrés’s attention was drawn to a warbler flitting from flower to flower. From his hide in his father’s car, Andrés photographed the singer, ‘the king of its territory’. Melodious warblers are one of more than 400 species of songbird known as Old World warblers, which each have a distinctive song. The song of a melodious warbler is a pleasant babbling and without the mimicked sounds that other warblers sometimes make. Photo: Andrés Luis Dominguez Blanco