The Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice winners capture nature at its fiercest
A fierce badger, a soaring owl, and a camouflaged stoat. The post The Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice winners capture nature at its fiercest appeared first on Popular Science.
A snarling honey badger stares down a cape porcupine in Botswana. It’s a brief pause in a life-or-death fight between the two animals. The porcupine bought some time with its sharp quills but a leg injury inflicted by the badger has left the porcupine vulnerable and it ultimately won’t survive the encounter.
Photographer David Northall captured the tense moment in a shot aptly titled “Spiked.” The photo finished in the top five of the 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Awards, announced this week in London. Ian Wood took home top honors for his photo (seen below) of a Eurasian badger wandering the streets of the seaside town St Leonards-on-Sea, England.
“Ian’s flawlessly timed image offers a unique glimpse of nature’s interaction with the human world, underscoring the importance of understanding urban wildlife,” Director of the Natural History Museum, Dr Douglas Gurr, said in a statement. “His exceptional photograph serves as a powerful reminder that local nature and wildlife, often just outside our homes, can inspire and captivate us.”
An ambling Eurasian badger, illuminated by a streetlight, appears to glance up at badger graffiti on a quiet road in England, UK. Residents of St Leonards-on-Sea had been leaving food scraps on the pavement for foxes, but Ian noticed that badgers from a nearby sett were also coming to forage. After seeing a badger walking along the pavement by this wall late one night, he decided to photograph it. He set up a small hide on the edge of the road to take this picture.
Credit: Ian Wood/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
A record 76,000 votes were cast to decide this year’s People’s Choice Award winner. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. Visitors to the museum can view Wood’s image, along with the four runners-up photographs, until June 29, 2025.
A ghostly barn owl exits the hayloft window of a derelict barn to hunt in fields outside Vancouver, Canada. Jess quietly watched the owl for several nights to understand its habits. He set up an invisible beam that would trigger a flash when the owl flew out of the barn. Simultaneously, a slow shutter speed gathered ambient light cast on the clouds and barn. On the tenth night, all the moving parts came together as the owl left to begin its hunt.
Credit: Jess Findlay/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 
A double lenticular cloud is illuminated at nightfall by the lava emitted from the Villarrica volcano, Chile. Villarica is in the town of Pucón in the south of Chile. It’s one of the country’s most active volcanoes and last erupted in 2015. Francisco takes regular trips to Villarrica to monitor its activity. On this visit, he stayed nearby for 10 nights. He says every trip is “quite an adventure – never knowing what the volcano might surprise you with”. Some nights are calm, others furious as in this photograph, where the brightness of the crater illuminates the night sky.
Credit: Francisco Negroni/Wildlife Photographer of the Year 
A stoat sits up and observes its territory as it blends perfectly into a snowy landscape in Belgium. Michel had been looking for stoats in the snow for many years.
The magic of snowfall fascinates Michel every winter. He wanted to take a photograph that showed how the stoats blend in with the whiteness of the landscape. He’d seen a few in Switzerland but never in his native Belgium. Then, finally his dream came true. He lay in the snow with a white camouflage net covering all but his lens. This curious stoat came out of its snowy hole and sat up from time to time, observing its territory just before setting off to hunt.
Credit: Michel d’Oultremont/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
The post The Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice winners capture nature at its fiercest appeared first on Popular Science.
