The winners of the Natural History Museum ’s ( NHM ) Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022 contention have been revealed , and as ever , we ’re in for a dainty . This year ’s top loot was scooped by American photographer Karine Aigner for their beautifully bewitch shot of a bombinate Lucille Ball of cactus bee snowballing in the Texas gumption .
The photograph indicate a behaviour love as ball whereby a gang of worker male person are all essay to mate with the single queen regnant in the center . It ’s an intense and belligerent behavior , which the judges decided was capture perfectly in this winning ikon .
“ offstage - whirring , incoming Male home in on the Lucille Ball of buzzing bee that is rolling straight into the picture . The good sense of movement and intensity is shown at bee - stage magnification and transmute what are little cactus bees into great challenger for a exclusive female person , ” Rosamund ‘ Roz ’ Kidman Cox OBE , panel chair , aver in a statement sent to IFLScience .
Winner of the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022: “The beauty of baleen.” Image credit: © Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
This year ’s competition – which is in its 59th yr – envision 38,575 entries from over 90 nation . An international panel of experts had to painstaking trawl through all of these image and gauge them on a number of criteria , include originality , narrative , technical excellence , and ethical practice .
From these thousands of entries , the judges settled on 19 category winners . Aigner ’s photograph – which also win the “ Behaviour : invertebrate ” class – was considered the emollient of the crop , landing her with the grand title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022 .
The judges also take Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn , a 16 - year - old from Thailand , as Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022 . Their double shows a Bryde ’s whale in the midst of lunge - feeding to feed huge number of teeny Pisces .
Winner, Behaviour: Mammals: “The great cliff chase.” Image credit: © Anand Nambiar/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
“ Out of the jaw of a Bryde ’s hulk comes this dazzling creation . The pin - sharp point of the tiny anchovies is set against an generalization of colour with the weave of brownish baleen whisker rim by a cascade of water cliff , ” said Kidman .
This twelvemonth ’s winning images will be on display at theNatural History Museum , Londonfrom Friday , October 14 , 2022 , until Sunday , July 2 , 2023 .
you could see a survival of this class ’s category winners below . If all of this tickles your fantasy , you may also check outlast year ’s win images .
Enjoy !
