Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award winners
- Published
More than 75,000 people around the world took part in voting for this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award. Ice Bed, by Nima Sarikhani, was the big winner. It shows a young polar bear nodding off on an iceberg. Dr Douglas Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, said the image “allows us to see the beauty and fragility of our planet”.
Ice Bed will be displayed alongside four Highly Commended images selected from a shortlist of 25 entries. Aurora Jellies by Audun Rikardsen is one of those that will go on display at the National History Museum in London followed by other galleries and museums throughout the year. It shows moon jellyfish in waters in Norway being illuminated by the aurora borealis.
The competition, by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine, runs each year and is open to amateur and professional photographers of all ages around the world. Almost 50,000 images were submitted for this year’s competition. Starling Murmuration by Daniel Dencescu is another of the images set to go on display. It shows starlings in the sky above Rome appearing to make the shape of a giant bird.
The competition dates back to 1965 and its aim is to help connect people with nature. Mark Boyd’s Shared Parenting managed to get its paws on one of the Highly Commended spots too. It shows a cub being groomed by a pair of lionesses in Kenya’s Maasai Mara conservation area.
Images entered into the 2024 competition, which will be the award's 60th year, are already being judged by an international panel of experts. Tzahi Finkelstein’s The Happy Turtle has the final Highly Commended spot of this competition. Has it inspired you to grab a camera and get snapping?