Biting flies on the head of an American crocodile Zeke Rowe/British Ecological Society
Most animals would be afraid to go near a crocodile, but biting flies have no qualms about landing on this fearsome predator and drinking its blood. This photo, taken by in Panama’s Coiba National Park, was chosen as the overall winner of the British Ecological Society’s annual .
“This crocodile was lurking in a tidal marsh off the beach,” said Rowe, a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands, in a statement. “I got as close and low as I dared, waiting for that direct eye contact.”
Advertisement
Cape sparrows and other birds disturbed by a lioness Willem Kruger/British Ecological Society
The judges also selected 10 category winners, including this shot by , a South African-based photographer, which won in the interactions category. During the dry season in Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park on the border between South Africa and Botswana, flocks of birds were drinking at a waterhole when a pride of lions approached, scaring the birds away.
Wallace’s flying frog Jamal Kabir/British Ecological Society
Free newsletter
Sign up to The Earth Edition
Unmissable news about our planet, delivered straight to your inbox each month.
at the University of Nottingham, UK, won in the animals category with this image of a Wallace’s flying frog (Rhacophorus nigropalmatus). These amphibians, named for the biologist Alfred Russel Wallace, use their webbed feet to glide between trees in the rainforests of South-East Asia.
A bighorn sheep has its nosed swabbed Peter Hudson/British Ecological Society
A bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in the Rocky mountains has its nose swabbed in this photo by , a photographer and biologist at Penn State University, which was highly commended in the ecologists in action category. Pneumonia is a major issue for bighorn herds, often wiping out young lambs in the spring. Researchers suspected that asymptomatic adults were spreading the disease to vulnerable youngsters, so they implemented a campaign to test wild sheep and treat the infected individuals. This helped to reduce mortality and let populations recover.
Fly on mushroom Francisco Gamboa/British Ecological Society
In the mountainous Altos de Cantillana nature reserve in Chile, wildlife photographer captured this photo of a fly resting on a mushroom, which won in the plants and fungi category.
Intertidal education Liam Brennan/British Ecological Society
In another highly commended image from the ecologists in action category, taken by wildlife researcher and photographer , three undergraduate students are using a beach seine – a type of fishing net – to count coastal fish species in New Brunswick, Canada, as part of a project monitoring seasonal population changes.
Topics:
