Here Was a Pretty Strong Cur- Rent, So I Wrapped a Strand of Kelp Around My Leg to Help Me Stay in One Place, and the Sea Lions Would Take Turns Zooming Past
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Eyecatchers Underwater Ballet California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) playing in a kelp for- est off Santa Barbara Island, California, USA. “Spoiler alert... the sea lion in the background is actually the same size as the one in the foreground! They were all juveniles that were playing with us, and the left one just looks smaller due to the way they lined up. We were just off Santa Barbara Island, California, and had a unique weather window – a blue sky, sunny day with a flat sea. It doesn’t get much better than that! There was a pretty strong cur- rent, so I wrapped a strand of kelp around my leg to help me stay in one place, and the sea lions would take turns zooming past. The current appeared to have no effect on their movement, which was like a cross between a ballet dancer and a torpedo.” Photographer: David Fleetham Image number: 1582769 Cover Page - Seeing Red Treehopper (Alchisme grossa) Mindo, Pichincha, Ecuador. “Treehoppers are one of the most amazing groups of insects: they have many shapes and colours, usually only live for a few months, and can be found on all continents except Antarctica. I found this orange leaf with approximately 30 treehoppers in a cloud forest of the Ecuadorian Western Slopes. As they are very shy animals they can be tricky to photograph. Moving very slowly, I managed to take this shot, where you can see the shape and colour of the treehop- per, in contrast with the uniformly orange leaf.” Photographer: Lucas Bustamante Image number: 1584710 Sunrise with the Kings King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) at sunrise, Falklands. Highly honoured in the Ocean View Category of the Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice Ocean View Competition 2017 “I spent a few mornings observing the behaviour of these King penguins. They would come down from their colony pre-dawn and spend a few minutes on the beach, almost like they were greeting the new day. If we approached, they would slowly move off - so it was difficult to photograph them properly. That was until I started lying down on the beach at their level, waiting for them to approach me. Over the next few days, I had some really amazing moments with these penguins, while I was lying completely soaked in the icy cold water. I could not be in a better place...! The water was extremely cold and I was completely wet from head to toe. My hands were totally numb and I was battling the onset of hypothermia. Over the course of the morning my cam- era would also become covered in sea water. Not so good for my camera and lenses, but for images like this we make sacrifices. Every image of mine is a celebration of natural beauty. It’s something we must protect and cherish. This image just drives home to me how important our last remaining wild places are - let’s not lose them!” Photographer: Wim van den Heever Image number: 1581145 How Many Teeth Does A Crocodile Have? American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) reflected in the surface as it floats, Jardines de la Reina, Gardens of the Queen National Park, Cuba. Caribbean Sea. “Nobody has ever hung around long enough to count, goes the old joke. This crocodile lives in the mangroves in the remote Gardens of the Queen National Park (Jardines de la Reina) in Cuba. Mangroves are usually very murky, not ideal conditions for swimming with crocodiles, or underwater photography! So, I went to photograph them at high tide, when the cleanest open water floods into the mangroves, allowing me to capture this clear image. After about 30 minutes in the water the tide had turned and weeds and other debris soon filled my pictures. The crocodile’s most famous asset is its teeth - and this was my focus here. I composed to emphasise the jaws, making use of the perspective of an ultra-wide-angle lens.” Photographer: Alex Mustard Image number: 1588110 Peek of the Newborn Caribbean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) chick under the wing of protective parent, Ria Lagartos Biosphere Reserve, Mexico “I have been working with Caribbean Flamingos for some years now, learning their behaviour, their different calls and moods, and learning how to get close without disturbing them. It has been such a pleasure to spend so much quality time surrounded by these beautiful birds, but from all the images I have made, this one - of a newborn having its first glimpse of the world - really stays in my mind. Hours after the chicks hatch they will already be on their feet, but being on top of a mud mound can a dangerous place for a chick that still does not have the strength or balance to move freely, so the parents take them under their wing. The curious newborns always find a way to peek from under the wing to see their surroundings. Being a parent myself, this image speaks to me a lot about the fragility of new life and protection that we as parents strive to give. Chicks remain in the nest for less than a week, soon wandering around the colony in crèches, starting to feed by themselves. To take this image, it was crucial to know when the eggs were laid in a particular part of the colony because incubation will be almost precisely 30 days long. Thus I worked with the field biologists that study and protect the colony to have the best chance of seeing the newborns hatch.” Photographer: Claudio Contreras Image number: 1585176 & 1585182 Feasting Frenzy Juvenile Andean mouse opossum (Marmosops impavidus) eating a moth, El Oro, Ecuador. “This image was taken in the Ecuadorian Chocó rainforest. As a herpetologist, I went out at night to look for frogs, lizards and snakes. Quite by accident I found this small marsupial, an Ande- an mouse opossum (Marmosops impavidus) on a branch, and I started to take some pictures. I positioned my headlamp in a tree, pointing at the opossum to light the scene, and started trying some shots. The stationary light source soon attracted a hoard of moths, and all of a sudden, the mouse opossum grabbed one and started to consume it. I was startled by the activity – I’d never expected to see such a cute animal behave so voraciously! This shot was taken when the mouse opossum had almost finished eating the body of the moth, with scales flying everywhere.” Photographer: Lucas Bustamante Image number: 1584583 Humpback vs. Humans Aerial view of Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in- vestigating Herring (Clupea harengus) caught in fishing net, with gulls, Norway. December. Second place in the Man and Nature Category of the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards 2017. “In winter, the spring spawning herring gather in the fjords of Northern Norway. The herring are predated upon by a large num- ber of humpback and killer whales. There is also extensive fish- ing taking place. The picture shows a humpback whale circling around a fishing net full of herring. It was probably curious of the content, and was probably able to eat some of the fish escaping the net. The whales often gather around the herring boats when they have fish in the net. There were lots of gulls having an easy meal inside the net too. The image was captured using a drone, close to the city of Tromsø in December, which is the darkest month of the year. The darkness forces long exposure time to be used, and in this image, it has an interesting effect on the flying gulls, appear- ing like white streaks. I think this image in a good way reflects the ‘fight’ between whales and humans over a common resource – the herring.” Photographer: Espen Bergersen Image number: 1585883 Special Delivery Female kestrel (Falco tunniculus) taking lizard prey gift from male, France. “These photos were taken in my garden in France, this pair of Kestrels live in the wall of my barn, and have done for the last ten years. I have a hide in my barn, and I took these pictures through a window, about 7m from the perch. This is a male and female adult pair and the male has caught a Common Wall Lizard, (Podarcis muralis). The male arrived on the perch with the prey, called for the female, she promptly arrived and hovered in front of him and took the lizard gift. The whole sequence only lasted about 20 seconds. It was a lovely sight to experience as I’ve never seen anything like this in the wild before, or pictures showing this behaviour.” Photographer: Eric Medard Image number: 1587273 & 1587274 The Green Empire Weaver ant (Oecophylla smaragdina), two workers holding leaf while another one is weaving them by the use of a larva to glue the leaves using silk. Kota Kinabalu Wetlands, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. “In the world of weaver ants, everyone works for the empire. The major workers join forces to fold leaves together, while the minor workers glue the seams using what could only be considered child labour - the leaves are secured with silk secreted by the larvae, meaning the baby ants are vital to the creation of each nest. Weaver ants are predators, and a single large colony can live across a number of trees, with multiple nests and more than one queen. The queens don’t really work outside the nest, but they’re precious because they’re the ones who give birth to new generations, making their green empire even greater.” Photographer: Emanuele Biggi Image number: 1590074 and 1590077 Spring Clean Black woodpecker (Dryocopus martius) excavating nest hole in tree trunk, Valga County, Estonia.