It's not a weird story, this photographer captured the real version of the "aquarium elephant"

The annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition was founded in 1965, with only 361 works participating in the first competition. But by 2021, there have been more than 50,000 entries from 95 countries, which can be called an international photography feast. Some works were born in the wilderness where few people have gone, while others have focused their cameras on animals surviving in the cracks of the city. Behind each work, there is an introspective story.

Below is a selection of the 2021 entries; to see all the entries, visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition website.

The elephant in the room

Photographer: Adam Oswell

At a zoo in Thailand, a group of tourists are watching and filming a baby elephant's underwater performance (a scene that seems to be something that would only appear in a zoo rule-related horror story).

In fact, the focus of this photo is not the elephants themselves, but the audience watching the performance. Photographer Adam used this to express his doubts about this form of entertainment. Behind this novel form of performance are baby elephants who were forced to be separated from their mothers since childhood, and training full of intimidation and torture. With the growth of elephant tourism, more and more baby elephants cannot escape the bad luck.

In the past two years, the fate of captive elephants has changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the suspension of the tourism industry, many elephant owners have lost their source of income from raising elephants. As a result, more and more captive elephants have been abandoned in protected areas, with their fate uncertain.

Dadu River

Photographer: Buddhilini de Soyza

In the turbulent water, several male cheetahs tried their best to cross the river, and their faces were ferocious. At the end of 2019, continuous rainfall in Kenya's Masai Mara Reserve caused the worst floods in history. Even for cheetahs, who are good swimmers, the turbulent water still poses a serious threat. Crocodiles are likely to lurk in calmer waters, so they have to cross the river from here at the risk of being swept away by the current. Fortunately, all these cheetahs reached the other side safely.

Male cheetahs usually live alone or in pairs, and this five-male alliance is rare. As climate change increases rainfall, they will face more similar challenges.

Close contact

Photographer: Shane Kalyn

Midwinter is the season when crows begin to breed. The black feathers of these two crows stand out against the snowy landscape. Their thick beaks slowly approached each other, and photographer Shane captured this intimate moment while lying on the frozen ground.

Once crows have chosen a partner, they stay together for life. This crow couple is exchanging "gifts" - moss, twigs and small stones, while making gentle trills to serenade each other to warm up their relationship.

Grizzly Bear Leftovers

Photographer: Zack Clothier

Don't worry, the photographer is safe, this is actually the picture captured by the camera trap he set up.

Photographer Zack set up his camera right after he found the remains of the deer. But a few days later, the snow had melted and Zack returned by stepping on fallen trees, only to find that his equipment was in a mess. Fortunately, before he fell, his camera captured this last frame, which was enough for him to win the championship.

Close to the camera is a grizzly bear, a subspecies of brown bear that is widely distributed in North America. Waking up from a seven-month hibernation, they are hungry and have a big appetite, and can gnaw the meat off the skeleton without leaving any residue.

Feather Love

Photographer: Laurent Ballesta

While surfacing from a deep-sea dive in the Mediterranean, photographer Laurent noticed two isopods floating on a seagull's feathers 20 feet from the surface. The male above seemed to be clinging to his partner's back, riding around the world on soft feathers. However, there is another sad possibility for this image: it may just be clinging to its own shed exoskeleton.

We can see isopods drifting in the ocean, often attached to large algae, driftwood or plastic debris, feeding on zooplankton. In our daily lives, the most common isopod is probably the pillbug.

Gorgeous fighter

Photographer: Hitesh Oberoi

Photographer Hitesh was very excited when he found the fan-throated lizard. In the hot summer in India, he endured the high temperature of up to 42 degrees Celsius and wandered on this rocky plateau for many days in search of these lizards. Finally, he captured the wonderful scene of the two lizards fighting for territory.

Males of this lizard species have a loose, brightly colored throat fan that, when deployed, acts as a warning signal to rival species and also helps them attract potential mates.

Head to Head

Photographer: Stefano Unterthiner

Photographer Stefano felt immersed in "smell, noise, fatigue and pain" when he witnessed the fight. The male deer used his antlers to butt his opponent. After a desperate fight, the male deer on the left finally drove away his opponent and won a precious opportunity to reproduce.

Reindeer are found throughout the Arctic, but this subspecies is only found in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. In the cold winter, they can still find edible plants under the snow. But with increased rainfall in recent years, the ground has frozen in winter, making it difficult for plants to emerge from the ground, so their food has become less and less.

Grab it

Photographer: Jack Zhi

To capture this fleeting moment, photographer Jack had to abandon his tripod, scramble for his camera and capture what is arguably the highlight of his three years of observing white-tailed kites.

The skill of passing food in the air is learned by white-tailed kites from their parents when they were young, when they were still unable to hunt for themselves - circling high in the sky and then diving to the ground to catch small mammals. As adults, they will use this childhood skill again to hold an aerial courtship ritual: the male hands the female a mouse as a "token of love."

Textile cradle

Photographer: Gil Wizen

Photographer Gil found the tarantula under loose bark. He was extremely careful when photographing it, as even the slightest disturbance could cause the spider to stop its work. "The movement of the spinneret reminded me of the dexterous fingers of humans when weaving," Gil said.

Spider House

Photographer: Gil Wizen

After noticing tiny spiders all over his bedroom, photographer Gil (yes, that Gil) looked under the bed. There, one of the world's most venomous spiders, the Brazilian wandering spider, was guarding its den. Before releasing it safely into the wild, he used perspective to photograph the palm-sized spider, making it appear as if it were the size of a wall.

Brazilian wandering spiders typically roam the forest floor at night, searching for prey such as frogs and cockroaches. Their venom can be deadly to humans but also has medical uses.

meditation

Photographer: Majed Ali

Photographer Majed trekked for four hours to meet Kibande, a mountain gorilla in his late 40s. “As we climbed higher and higher, it became hotter and more humid,” Majed recalled. “Finally, when a cool rain started to fall, Kibande remained outside and seemed to be enjoying the shower.”

Mountain gorillas are a subspecies of the eastern gorilla that live in forests at altitudes above 1,400 meters in Africa's Virunga Mountains. Disease, poaching and habitat loss have driven these gorillas to the brink of extinction.

Painful things

Photographer: Michael Watson

Photographer Michael was photographing a group of seals on the beach when he heard a scream of pain. He followed the sound and found a grey seal struggling in a plastic fishing line. It may have been entangled in the line when it was a juvenile. As it grew older, the line had become embedded deeper and deeper into its body.

The coast of Donna Nook Nature Reserve in the UK is a major breeding ground for grey seals, with more than 2,000 seal pups born here every year. However, fishing gear discarded by people floats in the sea, and unfortunate marine life such as whales, dolphins, and turtles often get entangled in ropes and even die.

Coral's Death

Photographer: David Doubilet

Photographer David has been diving here for more than 30 years. The photo he holds in his hand shows what the coral looked like in the past. This strong contrast shows the disappearance of a world.

Coral colonies are made up of thousands of coral polyps, each of which secretes calcium carbonate to build its home. Coral polyps feed on algae that live inside their cells. But overheated water causes the algae to disappear, and the corals fade to white.

Civet in Chaos

Photographer: Elize Labuschagne-Hull

When photographer Elize found this long-tailed civet cat, it was looking for food in the garbage. Perhaps it noticed Elize's presence, and it suddenly raised its head, holding a small receipt for a restaurant bill.

Found only on the island of Madagascar, the long-tailed civet cats are also suffering destruction in their homeland and have to be wary of human hunting rifles.

Lynx on the threshold

Photographer: Sergio Marijuán

After months of waiting, photographer Sergio’s carefully placed camera finally gave him the picture he wanted: at the door of an abandoned hay shed, an Iberian lynx just appeared, staring into the camera, perfectly “framed” in the door frame.

Prior to the early 20th century, lynx were widespread across the Iberian Peninsula. By 2002, hunting and habitat loss had pushed the species to the brink of extinction, with fewer than 100 lynx remaining in Spain. Today, the Iberian lynx population is on the rise thanks to ongoing conservation efforts.

Healing Touch

Photographer: Brent Stirton

The rescue center director sits with a newly rescued chimpanzee and introduces it to the other chimpanzees in an intimate way.

Usually, when adult chimpanzees in a population are killed, less than one in ten chimpanzees can be rescued. The staff of the rescue center will provide one-on-one care for these lucky ones to alleviate their psychological and physical trauma.

The Road to Destruction

Photographer: Javier Lafuente

Photographer Javier captured an aerial shot of a straight asphalt road that passes through a wetland, abruptly dividing the wetland into two.

The Odiel Swamp is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the second largest wetland in southern Spain. It is home to more than 100 bird species, including flamingos, spoonbills, hoopoes and black-winged stilts. But the road, built in the 1980s, cuts the wetland reserve in two. This changed the drainage system of the tidal marsh and lagoon, and also disturbed the wildlife that live there.

create

Photographer: Laurent Ballesta

When a female freshwater grouper drops her eggs, a swarm of males rush to release their sperm, creating a collision that looks like fireworks exploding underwater. For five years, photographer Laurent and his team have come to Fakarava Atoll in the South Pacific during grouper spawning season, searching underwater for the moment of life being born.

Clearwater grouper usually spawns around the full moon in July, when up to 20,000 fish gather in this narrow strip of water that connects the lagoon to the ocean to mate, but the species is threatened by overfishing.

Collapse of nursery

Photographer: Jennifer Hayes

After a storm, photographer Jennifer took a helicopter and spent several hours to find this broken piece of sea ice. She was immediately shocked by the scene in front of her: this place was used as a "birthing platform" by Greenland seals.

Every autumn, Greenland seals migrate south from the Arctic to their breeding grounds, and ice formation is closely linked to the seals' survival and reproduction, meaning climate change could affect future populations.

This article is translated from https://www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/gallery

The copyright of the picture belongs to the original author

Translation copyright belongs to Species Calendar

Compiled by: Jianer

Editor: Mai Mai