Laurent Ballesta / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
- This year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year Grand Title went to a picture of a very strange crab.
- Photographer Laurent Ballesta is the second person to win the competition's Grand Title twice.
- Other images captured hunting orcas, tadpoles feasting on a swallow, and a bobcat killing contest.
An image of a rare golden horseshoe crab gliding close to the sea floor has won Laurent Ballesta the grand prize at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year, developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London, selected the winning picture from about 50,000 entries.
Ballesta, a marine biologist, is only the second photographer in the competition's 59-year history to gain the competition's Grand Title.
The Grand Title winning picture shows the living fossil, coveted for its rare blue blood, charging through the mud in the protected waters near Pangatalan Island in the Philippines. It is accompanied by three small fish hoping to get spoils from the fearsome creature's meal.
Golden tri-spine horseshoe crabs have been roaming the oceans essentially unchanged for at least 100 million years, giving them their moniker of "living fossils."
But this animal's peculiar blue blood has now become its curse. The precious liquid is used to test batches of vaccines for contamination. This is now contributing to overfishing, threatening the survival of a species that also faces habitat destruction.
"To see a horseshoe crab so vibrantly alive in its natural habitat, in such a hauntingly beautiful way, was astonishing," Chair of the jury and editor Kathy Moran said in a press release accompanying the photo.
"We are looking at an ancient species, highly endangered, and also critical to human health. This photo is luminescent."
The contest awarded 19 prizes this year, some shown below.
VISHNU GOPAL / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Photographer Vishnu Gopal followed characteristic footsteps at his campsite into the Brazilian rainforest. After an hour of waiting, the tapir appeared through the brush. Gopal's picture won the Animal Portrait category.
Mike Korostelev / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Mike Korostelev spent two years visiting Kosi Bay, South Africa, to ingratiate himself with the local hippopotamuses. The above picture, a rare peak into a hippo's nursery, was taken in just 20 seconds. Korostelev's picture was the winner of the underwater category.
Juan Jésus Gonzales Ahurrada/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Juan Jésus Gonzales Ahurrada captured this quiet tragedy near his home, when a fledgling sparrow ventured out of the nest too soon and fell into a nearby pond, drowning.
The bird's demise, however, didn't go to waste, as tadpoles quickly came to feast on its body. The picture took the prize in the Behavior: Amphibians and Reptiles category.
Bertie Gregory / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Bertie Gregory spent two months stalking orcas from the roof of his boat in the freezing wind near the Antarctic peninsula. Using a drone, he captured a pod of orcas waiting in anticipation of launching a rare "wave wash," an attack aimed at capsizing small slabs of ice on which Weddell seals find refuge. The picture won the Behavior: Mammals category.
Karine Aigner / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Meanwhile, Karine Aigner shared a picture of the highest-paying predator hunting contest in the USA, the West Texas Big Bobcat Contest. The winner of the "heaviest bobcat" category in 2022 took home more than $35,000, per Aigner. She won the Photojournalist Story Award for her portfolio on the contest.