Where most wildlife photography awards celebrate the dignity, majesty, power and raw beauty of nature, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are deliberately "light-hearted, upbeat, possibly unpretentious, and mainly about wildlife doing funny things."

The awards "hope to share the true playfulness of the animal kingdom with the public."

The winners of the 2016 awards were announced at a ceremony in the Underdog Gallery in London on November 9, with winners collecting trophies in five separate categories.

Now in their second year, the awards have a more serious side — contributing towards animal conservation by reminding people of what the world stands to lose.

They have partnered with the Born Free Foundation — a UK-based organisation born out of the 1966 movie Born Free about raising lion cubs in Kenya — and currently give 10 per cent of merchandise sales to the foundation.

As if the embarrassment of dropping this fish wasn't enough, Nicholas de Vaulx was on hand to capture the moment for posterity. ( Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2016: Nicholas de Vaulx )

Awards founder Paul Joynson-Hicks MBE said they were in talks with the foundation to help fund a local schools education program, at first in Kenya but later around the world.

Joynson-Hicks, a professional wildlife photographer based in Tanzania, said the awards partly came out of the popularity of his own more off-beat photos.

"I noticed that whenever I held an exhibition, members of the public would spend a lot of time looking at my funnier pictures," he told the ABC.

"I was thinking about some way of helping send a conservation message, and thought why not an award?"

The first awards, in 2015, were immediately successful after attracting considerable media attention halfway through.

Joynson-Hicks says they received 1,500 entries from 52 countries in 2015, which rose to 2,200 entries from 75 countries — including Australia — in 2016.

"We joke we'll overtake our big brother, the more serious Wildlife Photographer of the Year, in three years," he said.

A painted frog fish casually hits another in the face — or tries to push it out of the shot. ( Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2016: Jim Chen )

The majority of the entries have been from amateur, not professional, photographers.

"I would say that of our winners, about a quarter of them have been professionals," Joynson-Hicks said.

"I think our winner this year is a doctor."

In a press release, he said there are "some phenomenal and dedicated photographers out there, most of whom are not full-time professional photographers, but who deliver equally impressive results."

Joynson-Hicks admits he did not expect the competition to be so effective at raising awareness of conservation issues, but it is less surprising that it has been effective at making people laugh.

"We have received so many congratulatory emails, telling us how we've brightened people's days," Joynson-Hicks said.

Face-planting foxes, fumbling pelicans, and yawning owls

A red fox face-planting in snow in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park won the On the Land category and was overall winner for Angela Bohlke from the USA.

For added poignancy, the winning image shows an unsuccessful pounce. Bohlke, 36, says it took the fox three tries to catch a vole for its breakfast.

Bohlke, who said she was absolutely shocked to have won, embraced the awards' conservation aim.

"To me, winning is just a chance to share the beauty of our protected lands with more people," she said.

"I plan to donate any personal profit from sales of the image back to Yellowstone National Park where this image was taken."

The judging panel included comedian Hugh Dennis, wildlife TV presenter Kate Humble, African landscape photographer Tom Sullam and Joynson-Hicks.

Thomas Bullivant, 15, won the junior award with this bunch of light-hearted zebras. ( Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2016: Thomas Bullivant )

Nicholas de Vaulx from France won the Kenya Airways In the Air award for an action shot of a pelican completely failing to hold onto a fish.

Jim Chen from Taiwan scooped the Underwater category with a more restrained image of a painted frog fish casually slapping another in the face.

A group of laughing zebras won the junior category for Thomas Bullivant, 15, from London.

A quartet of photos of a quartet of owls won the portfolio prize for Mario Fiorucci. ( Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2016: Mario Fiorucci )

The final award, the portfolio category, went to Argentinian banker Mario Gustavo Fiorucci for a quartet of images of a quartet of small owls.

"Given the prestige that this competition has achieved in only two years, and being one of the 40 finalists between thousands of photos, is a great honour to me," Fiorucci said.

Entries for the 2017 awards will open on June 1.