2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards
A yearly contest for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year was held in London this year. The contest had 38, 575 entries from around the world. Let's have a scanning of four of this year's best works.
The great prize this year belonged to Karine Aigner of the US for an incredible shot of a ball of bees. The "ball" was formed with a lot of male bees fighting to win a single female bee. The picture was taken in southern Texas. Ms Aigner says that soon after the picture was taken, a female bee flew off with one of the males.
Dmitry Kokh of Russia won the award for Urban Wildlife. His picture of polar bears in an old house was taken on an island in the Chukchi Sea, between Russia and Alaska. Mr Kokh was on a boat when he noticed polar bears walking through an area where no one had lived for years. To get the picture without disturbing the bears， he used a quiet drone (无人机)to take the picture.
Fernando Constantino Martinez Belmar of Mexico had to wait in the dark in a cave filled with bats and snakes to get the image. Rat snakes in Yucatàn hang from cracks in the ceiling of the cave, hoping to grab one of the many bats that are flying out of the cave for the night. Using a red light that wouldn't disturb the animals, Mr Martinez Belmar waited until just the right moment to take the picture. He won the Amphibian and Reptile Behavior prize.
Nick Kanakis of the US took the picture of a wood wren (鹧鸪) —a bird that spends most of its time on the ground. The bird has its ear to the ground, listening for insects to catch and eat. After spotting a bird looking for food farther away, he stayed very still to get the shot, which won the prize for Bird Behavior.
