Photos: Best Camera-Trap Pictures of 2012

Spitting Sloth Bear

Photograph courtesy Anil Cherukupalli, BBC Wildlife Magazine

Apparently camera-shy, a sloth bear spits at the camera in India. The image won WWF-India a prize of runner-up in the Animal Behaviour category.

Found predominantly in India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan, the sloth bear is considered vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Habitat loss and poaching—mainly for the commercial trade in body parts—are the bear's main threats, the report says. And in India sloth bears are captured live and made to perform on the roadside, according to IUCN.

(See a photo gallery of the world's most endangered bears [2007].)

Published December 7, 2012

Horned Guan

Photograph courtesy Javier Rivas, BBC Wildlife Magazine

A horned guan perches on a tree in Guatemala in an image that won runner-up in the Animal Portraits category.

This cloud forest dweller is considered endangered because remaining populations are very small, severely fragmented, and, given continuing threats, presumably declining, according to IUCN.

("Best Bird Pictures: Air, Sea, Ice Shots Win New Contest.")

Published December 7, 2012

Common Genet

Photograph courtesy Sebastian Kennerknecht, Pumapix.com/BBC Wildlife Magazine

Commended in the Animal Portraits category was this image of a common genet in the Hawf Protected Area in Yemen.

Long, lean carnivores with a long tail, genets appear catlike and are agile climbers in their forest homes, according to the University of Michigan.

(See "Camera-Trap Pictures: Mammals-And a Poacher-Exposed.")

Published December 7, 2012

Tiger Eating Rhino

Photograph courtesy Sandesh Kadur, BBC Wildlife Magazine

A tiger munches on a rhino in India in the winning Animal Behaviour photograph.

Photographer Sandesh Kadur captured the image during a biodiversity survey.

(See pictures of seven cat species found in a single forest in India.)

Published December 7, 2012

Wrestling Lizards

Photograph courtesy Alan Horsup, BBC Wildlife Magazine

Yellow-spotted monitor lizards go head-to-head in an image selected as a non-winning editor's choice. (Watch: Wrestling monitor lizards.)

The monetary prizes—provided by World Land Trust and Páramo Directional Clothing Systems—go to winning projects, not individual photographers.

Published December 7, 2012

See More Camera Trap Pictures

Photograph courtesy ZSL

Published December 7, 2012