The winning images and photographers of this year’s World Nature Photography Awards have just been announced. Contest organizers have once more shared some of the winning images, shown below, from their 14 categories. Captions were provided by the photographers and have been lightly edited for style and clarity.
Winners of the 2024 World Nature Photography Awards
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Winner, Behavior—Mammals. A mother zebra and her foal are attacked by a cheetah in Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. "That morning, we decided to follow four cheetahs on the hunt. We followed them for hours. We passed herds of topis, gazelles, and zebras. We knew something was going to happen. When, five hours later, our Maasai guide whispered, ‘They are going for the zebras,’ I was convinced they would attack the topis or gazelles dotted across the valley. Seconds later, the cheetahs burst into a small group of zebras. One cheetah ran toward us, clinging onto a foal. In those seconds, I took this picture of the mother zebra launching a last attempt to push her foal away from the attacking cheetah. She failed. I will remember those last seconds for the rest of my life.” #
© Alexander Brackx / World Nature Photography Awards -
Winner, Underwater. "A female orca split a herring bait ball while diving through it to get one, shot from underneath while free diving. Every winter, enormous schools of herring migrate from the open ocean into the fjords of northern Norway and attract large numbers of big predators such as orcas and humpback whales." Photographed near Skjervøy, Norway. #
© Andy Schmid / World Nature Photography Awards -
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Winner, Planet Earth's Landscapes and Environments. "Winter in Stokksnes, Iceland. The beach with its black sand and the majestic mountain called Vestrahorn—I love the contrast in colors between the white mountains and the black dunes with yellow grass." #
© Ivan Pedretti / World Nature Photography Awards -
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Winner, Plants and Fungi. "Once, a photographer whom I respected, Suchat Chanhomhuan, took me to Doi Hua Mot Mountain, Umphang Wildlife Sanctuary, Tak province, Thailand, to meet a kind of living organism with a strange shape that looked like an owl. The scientific name of this plant is Thismia thaithongiana." #
© Chatree Lertsintanakorn / World Nature Photography Awards -
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