Deadlock by David Maitland (UK)



Winner of the Animal Behaviour: All Other Animals category



It was at about midnight when David discovered this life-and-death struggle. A cat-eyed tree-snake, coiled around a branch, was locked in an embrace with a Morelet's treefrog - a critically endangered species.



"The snake had failed to get its jaws around the whole of the frog's head," says David. "It wouldn't let go, presumably because the frog would have leapt away. But it couldn't swallow it, either."





Frodo's prize by Cyril Ruoso (France)



Winner of the Animal Behaviour: Mammals category



Frodo, now 31 and going grey, may have lost the alpha status he held for many years, but he is still the biggest, most powerful and most skilled hunter of the Kasekela chimps in Tanzania's Gombe National Park.



Usually the chimps go for monkeys. This time Frodo, egged on by the frantic screeches of the rest of the group, had caught something much more unusual: a bushpig. There had clearly been a frenzied tug-of-war, because the bushpig's body was ripped in two.




Snowstorm leopard by Steve Winter (USA)



Wildlife photographer of the year and winner of the Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Wildlife



Steve had taken a number of pictures of snow leopards between January and July, but the shot he was after eluded him: a snow leopard in a snowfall with a backdrop that conjured up the atmosphere of its extreme environment.



Checking his camera one freezing May morning, he found this snow leopard gazing back at him exactly in the place in the frame he had hoped it would be.



Today, the snow leopard is at crisis point, hunted as a predator of livestock but also for its luxurious coat and its bones.

First encounter by Brian Skerry (USA)



Winner of The Underwater World category



"Swimming along the ocean bottom with a 14-metre long, 70-tonne whale," says Brian, "was the single most incredible animal encounter I have ever had."



The picture was taken some 22 metres down off the Auckland Islands, far south of New Zealand.