“The golden couple” Marsel van Oosten/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A portrait of two golden snub-nosed monkeys has won the 2018 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

The pair were snapped by Dutch photographer Marsel van Oosten in the temperate forest of China’s Qinling mountains, the only place where this endangered species lives. “This image is a symbolic reminder of the beauty of nature and how impoverished we are becoming as nature is diminished,” says Roz Kidman Cox, a member of the judging panel.

The photography competition is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London, and gave prizes in a range of categories.


“Lounging leopard” Skye Meaker/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

This resting leopard in Botswana’s Mashatu Game Reserve earned Skye Meaker the Grand Title prize for young photographers aged 15 to 17.

“Bed of seals” Cristobal Serrano/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Cristobal Serrano won the Animals In Their Evironment category with this picture of crabeater seals sharing space on a small ice floe in the Errera Channel at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.

“Mud-rolling mud-dauber” Georgina Steytler/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Georgina Steytler photographed these mud-dauber wasps using mud to add egg chambers to their nests in Walyormouring Nature Reserve, Western Australia, earning her the prize for best invertebrate photo.

“Kuhirwa mourns her baby” Ricardo Núñez Montero/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

This young female mountain gorilla isn’t holding a bundle of roots – it’s a tiny corpse. Believed to have been born during bad weather in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, the baby gorilla likely died of cold. Ricardo Núñez Montero won the prize for mammal behaviour with his photograph of its mourning mother.

“Blood thirsty” Thomas P Peschak/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The bird behaviour prize went to this picture of vampire finch feeding upon a boobie on a remote northern Galápagos island, taken by Thomas P Peschak.

“Hellbent” David Herasimtschuk/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The winner of the Amphibians and Reptiles category was this epic scene from a struggle between a northern water snake and a hungry hellbender, a species of giant salamander. David Herasimtschuk snapped the fight in the Tellico River in Tennessee.

“The sad clown” Joan de la Malla/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The photojournalism award went to Joan de la Malla, who photographed this young long-tailed macaque forced to wear a mask in street performances in Surabaya, Indonesia.

“Mother defender” Javier Aznar González de Rueda/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

This image of a large treehopper guarding her family of nymphs was one of six images that won Javier Aznar González de Rueda the Wildlife Photographer Portfolio Award.

An exhibition of the short-listed entries will open at the Natural History Museum on 19 October.