Pictures: Best Wild Animal Photos of 2012 Announced

Eric Hosking Portfolio Award

Photograph courtesy Vladimir Medvedev, VEWPOY

Vladimir Medvedev was driving through Canada's Jasper National Park when he spotted a red deer stag lying in the grass by the highway. The photographer pulled over and swiftly positioned his tripod and snapped this picture just as a truck thundered by.

After taking the picture, Medvedev left as quickly as possible to ensure the deer's peace. "The stag may have been inconspicuous, but I wasn't," he said in a statement. "As long as I stayed there, he was no longer invisible. So I left straight away, so as not to betray his presence."

The shot, titled "Life in the Border Zones," won Medvedev the Eric Hosking Portfolio Award, intended for photographers aged 18 to 26 who submit portfolios of their best work.

Published October 23, 2012

Commended, World in Our Hands Award

Photograph courtesy Paul Hilton, VEWPOY

Workers at the Donggang fish market in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, process frozen shark fins to help meet a growing worldwide demand for shark-fin soup.

"It was sobering to think how many sharks had been killed to produce this pile of fins for a soup that isn't even healthy," photographer Paul Hilton said in a statement about his picture, titled "The End of Sharks." The image was a runner-up for the World in Our Hands Award, focused on the "relationship between people and the environment."

An increasingly popular dish among the middle-class in China, shark-fin soup is responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of sharks annually, scientists say. Many sharks are taken solely for their fins and then thrown back in the ocean, where it takes several hours for the fish to die.

(See "Shark Fins Traced to Home Waters Using DNA—A First.")

Published October 23, 2012

Wildlife Photojournalist Award

Photograph by Steve Winter, National Geographic

A Sumatran tiger slips through a fence in India's Bandhavgarh National Park for "A Cry for the Tiger," taken for an article in the December 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine. The photo is part of a six-picture essay that won photographer Steve Winter the contest's Wildlife Photojournalist Award.

A former tiger hunter, now employed as a park ranger, advised photographer Steve Winter where to set up his camera trap to get the shot. (See more pictures from Steve Winter's 2012 tiger assignment.)

Sumatran tigers are critically endangered, and some biologists estimate there are fewer than 500 of them left in the wild.

Published October 23, 2012

Winner, Wildscapes: "Aurora Over Ice"

Photograph courtesy Thilo Bubek, VEWPOY

To capture this winning picture of green auroras in northern Norway, photographer Thilo Bubek camped out on a frozen lake in subfreezing temperatures and waited.

At first Bubek saw only tiny auroras in the distance. But as the evening wore on, the dancing lights moved closer, until eventually they flashed in vast arcs across the sky.

The aurora borealis, or northern lights, occurs when highly charged electrons from the solar wind interact with oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere. The color varies depending on the nature of the atom (green is from oxygen) and the altitude at which the reaction happens.

Published October 23, 2012

Winner, Animals in Their Environment

Photograph courtesy Ole Jørgen Liodden, VEWPOY

In a picture titled "Living on Thin Ice," a lone polar bear takes a break on an ice floe around the islands of Svalbard in northern Norway earlier this summer.

"The landscape, the shape of the ice floe, the shape of the bear, and the footprints were just perfect," photographer Ole Jørgen Liodden said in a statement.

Jørgen Liodden said he hopes the picture will help people think about an environment that is disappearing faster than most of us realize, and appreciate the future most polar bears are facing, with ever thinner Arctic ice—or no ice at all.  (See more polar bear pictures.)

Published October 23, 2012

Winner, Mammals: "Practice Run"

Photograph courtesy Grégoire Bouguereau, VEWPOY

When photographer Grégoire Bouguereau saw a female cheetah catch a Thomson's gazelle calf and bring it—alive—to her cubs, he guessed that a hunting lesson was about to begin.

At first the cubs didn't notice the prey in their midst, Bouguereau said, but as soon as the calf struggled to its feet, the cheetahs' predatory instincts were triggered. "Each cub's gaze locked on to the calf as it made a break for freedom," Bouguereau said in a statement.

(Related: "Cheetah Breaks Speed Record—Beats Usain Bolt by Second.")

Published October 23, 2012

Commended, Cold-Blooded Animal

Photograph courtesy Steven Kovacs, VEWPOY

A dour-faced, male dusky jawfish protects its cache of fertilized eggs by carrying them in his mouth.

"He seemed unconcerned by my presence and didn't retreat into his burrow when I started taking pictures," photographer Steven Kovacs, who calls the image "Father’s Little Mouthful," said in a statement. "He couldn't have been more cooperative."

Published October 23, 2012

Winner, Animal Portraits

Photograph courtesy Larry Lynch, VEWPOY

An alligator takes a break in Florida's Myakka River State Park in Sarasota after gorging on fish stranded in shallow pools left behind as water from the river receded. "It wasn't going anywhere in a hurry," photographer Larry Lynch said in a statement.

To get the picture, titled "Warning Night Light," Lynch set up his camera about 20 feet (7 meters) from the alligator. Just after sunset, he set his flash on the lowest setting to capture the "eyeshine" in animal's eyes. Like cats, alligators have a structure at the backs of their eyes that reflects light back into the photoreceptor cells to make the most of low light.

(Related: "Alligator 'Feeding Frenzy' Shows Teamwork.")

Published October 23, 2012

Commended, Botanical Realms

Photograph courtesy Francisco Mingorance, VEWPOY

The stars of our Milky Way galaxy serve as a backdrop for flowering red bugloss plants in volcanic Teide National Park on Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

Spanish photographer Francisco Mingorance spent several days walking around Tenerife looking for flowers growing in just the right configuration for the shot he had in mind.

For the winning image, called "Spirit Of the Volcano," Mingorance used a ground-level viewpoint to emphasize the height of the plants, which can reach nearly ten feet (three meters). (See more Milky Way pictures.)

Published October 23, 2012

Winner, Creative Visions

Photograph courtesy Klause Nigge, VEWPOY

"A Swirl of Flamingos"—as photographer Klause Nigge calls this image—arcs through an estuary on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula in this winning aerial shot.

Photographer Klause Nigge joined biologists on a flamingo hunt and got the picture by pointing his camera out the door of a plane. "The photography in this situation was all about capturing the beauty of pattern, form, and color" Nigge said in a statement.

The winning pictures of this year's Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest are on display at London's Natural History Museum through March 3, 2013.

Published October 23, 2012

More Pictures: See Last Year's Winners

Photograph courtesy Daniel Beltrá, VEWPOY

Published October 23, 2012