Ah Boon.Net 阿文

The annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition finds the very best wildlife images taken by the world’s top professional and amateur photographers.

Ten long months spent stalking the rare and elusive snow leopard in temperatures as low as -40ºC paid off for a dogged photographer.

An image of the Himalayan big cat, silhouetted against a black sky filled with snow, won the aptly-named Steve Winter the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.

The picture captures the majestic beauty of the endangered leopard and the bitingly cold and hostile high-altitude landscape it manages to survive in.

An estimated 3,500-7,000 snow leopards (Uncia uncia) survive in the high-altitude regions of the Himalayas and mountains of Central Asia. A fearsome predator, it has suffered a steep decline in numbers because of poaching for its highly-prized skin and body parts.

An exhibition of the winning images will be on view at the Natural History Museum from October 31 2008 – April 26 2009.

Last year the exhibition attracted almost 134,000 visitors and was later seen by more than 1m people at regional and international venues.

Troublemaker – Stefano Unterthiner, Italy. Winner, animal portraits

Sacrifice – David Maitland, UK. Winner – One Earth Award

Clash of eagles – Antoni Kasprzak, Poland. Winner, behaviour – birds

Frodo’s prize – Cyril Ruoso, France. Winner, behaviour – Mammals

Deadlock – David Maitland, United Kingdom. Winner, behaviour – Other Animals

First encounter – Brian Skerry, USA. Winner, behaviour – The Underwater World

The Show – Catriona Parfitt, UK. Winner, young wildlife photographer of the year

Snow swans – Yongkang Zhu, China. Winner, Animals in their Environment

Skeleton Coast of Namibia – Andy Biggs, USA. Winner, Wild Places

New occupant – Jamie McGregor Smith, UK. Winner, Urban and Garden Wildlife

Swamp cypress – Cece Fabbro, USA. Winner, Praise of plants

Sun jelly – Carlos Virgili, Spain. Winner, Nature in Black and White

Polar sunrise – Miguel Lasa, UK. Winner, Creative Visions of Nature

Battle of the Bears – Tom Mills, UK. Junior awards, Specially Commended

Orcas at sunset – Nuno Sá, Portugal. Highly Commended – Animals in their Environment

Whooper lift-off – Ellen Anon, USA. Highly Commended – Animals in their Environment

Bee-eater ballet – Chris van Rooyen, South Africa. Highly commended – Animal portraits

Sandpiper congregation – Arthur Morris, USA. Highly commended – Animal behaviour: birds

Colourful business – Noam Kortler, Israel. Highly commended – The underwater world

Sea of life – Brian Skerry, USA. Visitor choice – The Underwater World

Treetop jigsaw in Malaysia – Brittany Fried, USA. Highly commended – 10 years and under

Reference – [Telegraph.UK], [Natural History Museum]

Technorati Tags: Wildlife, Photographer, Steve Winter , Animal, Leopard, Uncia, Catriona Parfitt, Colobus Monkeys

Trackback This Post | Subscribe to the comments through RSS Feed