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Headline : Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 - Winners
Caption : The winners of this year’s prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition were announced Thursday (15Oct15) at an awards ceremony held at London’s Natural History Museum. Canadian amateur photographer Don Gutoski was named Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 by a panel of international judges for his image Tale of two foxes, a beautiful but haunting portrait of the struggle for life in the subarctic climes of Cape Churchill, Canada.

Beating more than 42,000 entries submitted from across 96 countries, Don’s image will take centre stage at the fifty-first Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, opening at the Natural History Museum on 16 October (15). The acclaimed show celebrates the rich array of life on our planet, reflecting its beauty and highlighting its fragility. After its London premiere, the exhibition embarks on a UK and international tour, to inspire millions of people across the world to appreciate and conserve the natural world.
Cape Churchill is the point where the range of the red fox and the more northern Arctic fox overlap. "The Churchill guides had heard that the two species will occasionally fight, but no one we talked to had ever seen this behaviour," says Gutoski. "I first noticed the red fox hunting and interacting with some prey and on closer approach realised that prey was a white Arctic fox. By the time I got close enough to capture the event, the fight was over and the victor was feeding. I took a number of pictures of the event, until the red fox had eaten its fill, and picked up the remains to find a hiding spot for a later meal."

Jury member and National Geographic magazine’s senior editor for natural history projects, Kathy Moran says, "The immediate impact of this photograph is that it appears as if the red fox is slipping out of its winter coat. What might simply be a straightforward interaction between predator and prey struck the jury as a stark example of climate change, with red foxes encroaching on Arctic fox territory. The bottom line is, this image works on multiple levels. It is graphic, it captures behaviour and it is one of the strongest single storytelling photographs I have seen."

Fourteen-year-old Ondrej Pelánek from the Czech Republic won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 title for his image Fighting ruffs. The two images were selected from 18 individual category winners, depicting nature at its finest, from displays of extraordinary animal behaviour to sublime landscapes. The competition, owned by the Natural History Museum, is judged by a panel of industry-recognised professionals. Images, submitted by both professional and amateur photographers are selected for their creativity, artistry and technical complexity.

WINNER FROM THE SKIES: 'The Art of Algae' - Pere Soler
SPAIN
The Bahía de Cádiz Natural Park on the coast of Andalucia, Spain is a mosaic of marshes reedbeds sand dunes and beaches which attracts great numbers of birds and in spring it is an important migration stopping-off point. Pere was there for the birds but also for a spring phenomenon only fully visible from the air. As the temperature warms and the salinity changes the intertidal wetlands are transformed by colour as bright green seaweed intermingles with multicoloured microalgal blooms. White salt deposits and brown and orange sediments coloured by sulphurous bacteria and iron oxide add to the riot of colour. The full display usually lasts only a few weeks in May or June but it’s not possible to predict exactly when. Pere took his chances in June hired a plane and at midday when the tide was out and the light was overhead he was able to photograph the rich tapestry of colour and texture. The spectacle was said the pilot the most beautiful he’d seen in many years of flying over the delta.
Canon EOS 5D Mark III + 70-200mm f4 lens at 70mm
1/1000 sec at f5.6
ISO 200
PersonInImage : 'The Art of Algae' - Pere Soler