wildlife | Colours

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016

Swarming Under the Stars by Imre Potyó
Imre was captivated by the chaotic swarming of mayflies on Hungary’s River Rába and dreamt of photographing the spectacle beneath a starlit sky. For a few days each year (at the end of July or beginning of August), vast numbers of the adult insects emerge from the Danube tributary, where they developed as larvae. On this occasion, the insects emerged just after sunset.
The Disappearing Fish by Lago Leonardo (Spain)
In the open ocean, there’s nowhere to hide, but the lookdown fish – a name it probably gets from the steep profile of its head – is a master of camouflage. Recent research suggests that it uses special platelets in its skin cells to reflect polarised light (light moving in a single plane), making itself almost invisible to predators and potential prey. The platelets scatter polarised light depending on the angle of the sun and the fish, doing a better job than simply reflecting it like a mirror.
Splitting the Catch by Audun Rikardsen (Norway)
Sometimes fishing boats look for killer whales and humpbacks, hoping to locate the shoals of herring that migrate to Arctic Norwegian waters. In recent winters, whales have started to follow the boats. Here a large male killer whale feeds on herring that have been squeezed out of the boat’s closing fishing net. He has learnt the sound that this type of boat makes when it retrieves its gear. The relationship would seem to be a win-win one, but not always.
Collective Courtship by Scott Portelli (Australia)
Thousands of giant cuttlefish gather each winter in the shallow waters of South Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf for their once-in-alifetime spawning. Males compete for territories that have the best crevices for egg-laying and then attract females with their mesmerising displays of changing skin colour, texture and pattern. Rivalry among the world’s largest cuttlefish – up to 1m long – is fierce, as males outnumber females by up to eleven to one.
Playing Pangolin by Lance van de Vyver (New Zealand/South Africa)
Lance had tracked a pride of lions in South Africa’s Tswalu Kalahari Private Game Reserve for several hours before they stopped to rest by a waterhole where they discovered a Temminck’s ground pangolin. This nocturnal, ant-eating mammal is armour-plated with scales made of fused hair, and it curls up into an almost impregnable ball. “They rolled it around like a soccer ball,” says Lance, who chose black and white to help simplify the composition.
Nosy Neighbour by Sam Hobson (UK)/span>
Sam knew exactly who to expect when he set his camera on the wall one summer’s evening in a suburban street in Bristol, the UK’s famous fox city. He wanted to capture the inquisitive nature of the urban red fox in a way that would pique the curiosity of its human neighbours about the wildlife around them.
Termite Tossing by Willem Kruger (South Africa)
Termite after termite after termite – using the tip of its massive beak-like forceps to pick them up, the hornbill would flick them in the air and then swallow them. Foraging beside a track in South Africa’s semiarid Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, the southern yellow-billed hornbill was so deeply absorbed in termite snacking that it gradually worked its way to within 6m of where Willem sat watching from his vehicle.

Founded in 1965, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) is an annual international competition, showcasing nature’s most extraordinary sights.
This year was the most competitive to date – attracting almost 50,000 entries from professionals and amateurs across 95 countries. Judged by a panel of international experts, winning images are selected for their creativity, originality and technical excellence.
The entries have been curated into a finalists’ collection of 100 exceptional images forming the world-renowned exhibition currently on display at the Natural History Museum in London, which runs the annual competition. The exhibition reveals the astonishing diversity of life on our planet and highlights our crucial role in protecting it.

Here are our favourite finalists from the collection.