Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Frenzied bee ball wins top prize

It's a manic infinitesimal arsenic antheral cactus bees envelop a azygous female. But who successful this amorous scrum volition look fortunate and get to mate with her?

This singular picture, captured by Karine Aigner, is the expansive rubric victor successful this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

On 1 level it's rather a method image. It required the usage of a macro probe lens to get successful adjacent to the precise bosom of the action.

"I had to walk rather a spot of clip connected my belly successful the dirt," Karine joked.

The American is lone the 5th pistillate to triumph the apical prize successful the 58-year past of WPY, arsenic the contention is often called.

"It wasn't thing I went looking for. I've been moving connected a ranch successful South Texas for years, and I conscionable happened connected the location. I saw each these small 'volcanoes' successful the crushed - the idiosyncratic burrows dug by the females to marque their nests," she told BBC News.

Cactus bees, arsenic their sanction suggests, unrecorded connected and astir cactus plants. The females cod pollen, which they manner into tiny balls and store successful chambers successful the soil. The balls volition prolong their larvae until they tin aboveground arsenic adults and proceed the reproductive cycle.

"The representation is fabulous; it's got truthful overmuch energy. It's a due 'behaviour' shot. That's what you get from invertebrates and that's wherefore I emotion them," said Roz Kidman Cox, who chairs the WPY judges.

"It's besides the composition. What makes the photograph implicit are the bees coming successful from the side. They springiness you 'the soundtrack'."

The Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year for 2022 is Thailand's Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn.

The 16-year-old's winning introduction is simply a close-up of a Bryde's whale and the baleen plates successful its rima which are utilized to filter food.

You tin spot a sardine flying done the aerial arsenic it tries to flight being gobbled down by the large cetacean.

"Somehow the sardine jumped successful the boat," Katanyou recalled. "I was lucky. I got adjacent successful the vessel and the whale stayed supra the h2o for astir a minute."

WPY is 1 of the astir prestigious competitions of its benignant successful satellite photography.

Started successful 1964 by BBC Wildlife Magazine, the contention is present organised by London's Natural History Museum.

This year's lawsuit drew 38,575 entries from 93 countries. Below are immoderate of the class winners.

Brent Stirton is good known for his photojournalism, for which helium is the WPY class victor this year. His representation shows the extremity of beingness of Ndakasi, a upland gorilla who was rescued arsenic a two-month-old aft her unit was brutally killed by a almighty charcoal mafia successful the DRC's Virunga National Park. Ndakasi is successful the arms of her rescuer and caregiver, Andre Bauma.

These flamingos are pictured precocious successful the Andes astatine Salar de Uyuni, the world's largest brackish pan. It is besides 1 of Bolivia's largest lithium mines, which threatens the aboriginal of the flamingos. Japanese lensman Junji Takasago suffered altitude sickness to get this image, but his discomfort won him the Natural Artistry category.

It whitethorn look colourful but this is not a steadfast scene. Daniel Núñez utilized a drone to seizure the opposition betwixt the wood and the algal maturation connected the borderline of Guatemala's Lake Amatitlán. The cyanobacteria successful the h2o are driven by the beingness of pollutants, specified arsenic sewage discharged from Guatemala City. The representation won the Wetlands, The Bigger Picture category.

Tony Wu caught this country disconnected the seashore of Japan. It shows a elephantine oversea prima (starfish) astatine the infinitesimal of spawning. The echinoderm is moving its arms and swaying its body, possibly to expanse eggs and sperm into the currents wherever they tin fertilise unneurotic successful the water. The representation won WPY's Underwater category.

Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar took this representation astatine a determination known arsenic the Cave of the Hanging Snakes. At dusk, thousands of bats permission the cave to forage for insects. As they depart, the rat snakes bent from the walls of the cave, aiming to get a repast of their own. The representation won the Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles category.

Dimitry Kokh took this representation connected Kolyuchin Island, which is successful the Arctic's Chukchi Sea. The polar bears contiguous a haunting country successful the fog that hangs implicit the abandoned buildings. Yachtsman Dimitry was connected the land to instrumentality structure from a storm. He utilized a tiny drone to get adjacent to the predators. The representation won the Urban Wildlife category.

The annual accumulation dedicated to the WPY competition opens astatine the Natural History Museum successful London connected Friday. As successful past years, it volition besides spell connected circuit astir the UK and to 10 countries worldwide. Entries for the 59th Wildlife Photographer of the Year volition beryllium accepted from Monday.