Judges have whittled down a shortlist of 24 phenomenal images from 60,636 entries for this year’s competition. Submissions were made from around the world and online voting is now open. Not only do these images showcase technical ability and a creative eye, but they highlight important themes impacting the natural world today. Several entries draw attention to issues such as poaching, pollution and illegal wildlife trade. Take a look at some of the nominations in this gallery and don’t forget to cast your vote here. Voting closes on March 18 (Picture: Christopher Paetkau/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
Photographer Josef Stefan spent two weeks observing lynx from a hide at Torre de Juan Abad, Ciudad Real, Spain. This particular young lynx played with its prey for 20 minutes, throwing it up into the air multiple times before eating it (Picture: Josef Stefan/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
Shortly after this pangolin pup was born, its mother died. She was a victim of poaching and lived in appalling conditions. Pangolins are one of the worlds most trafficked animals, often sought after for their scales which are used in traditional medicine (Picture: Lance van de Vyver/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
These animal snares were confiscated over a one year period. It was shot by photographer Adam Oswell in the Murchison Falls National Park, Uganda. He helped park rangers and volunteers to build the enormous pile in order to highlight the continued effort to combat poaching syndicates in the area (Picture: Adam Oswell/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
This image captures a superpod of spinner dolphins herding their prey, superpods of this size are becoming increasingly rare due to overfishing and pollution. Photographer Cecile Gabillon said that her fisheye lens wasn’t even wide enough to take in the full scene and that she was so amazed by the encounter that she almost forgot to come up for air (Picture: Cecile Gabillon/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
Due to deforestation, the natural habitat of these marvellous spatuletail hummingbirds has become smaller and smaller. They now only exist in a small area of the Andes in norther Peru. Photographer Dustin Chen was lucky enough to encounter one showing off it’s long tail while feeding on flowers (Picture: Dustin Chen/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
Photographer Nima Sarikhani has said that this image is likely the last photo taken of this polar bear cub. Shortly after it was taken, the polar bear and its family were hunting for food too close to an area of huts and were chased away by people. The mother was sadly found dead by a nearby shore of the Svalbard archipelago, and the cub was then shot by police who claimed it was acting aggressively (Picture: Nima Sarikhani/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
This sun bear was found sheltering from the rain in a furnace just as a butterfly came to land on its nose. It was taken in the Kaeng Krachan National Park in Thailand where an increasing number of sun bears have been seen entering campsites looking for food (Picture: Mogens Trolle/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) Add as preferred source