- Winners of the international contest capture rare nature and wildlife moments
- An eerie photo of a jaguar killing a caiman won first prize in the nature category
- READ MORE: According to TIME Magazine, these 100 photos changed the world
A jaguar seems to stare into your soul as it lands a deadly bite into a caiman. An orangutan holds onto a tree, looking a bit like Gene Kelly. A band of majestic horses kick up snow as they crest a hill.
These are just a few of the photos among the finalists and winners of the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards.
Spanning many categories of amateur and professional photographers around the world, this year’s winners captured a world in motion, a world in tension.
Here’s a selection of some of the top photos from the Natural World & Wildlife category in the Open Competition, as well as some of the top nature photographs from the National Competitions that recognized the best photographers from each country around the world.
This photo made the shortlist of the ‘Natural World & Wildlife’ category, shows horses running through thick snow in Inner Mongolia, China. The majestic animals ‘decided to take a short-cut from the high ground’, says Chee Kin Wong, who captured it.
If you look carefully, you can see that these bats are hanging upside down. The photo was captured by Pedro Jarque Krebs, who turned the image upside down to give these cuddling bats a decidedly relatable appearance.
Ian Ford’s photo, titled Caiman Crunch, won first prize in the Natural World & Wildlife category
Ian Ford’s photo, titled Caiman Crunch, won first prize in the Natural World & Wildlife category.
This picture was captured at Sao Lourenco River lodge in the Pantanal wetlands, Brazil.
‘As we were leaving, we heard that a jaguar had been spotted roughly 30 minutes away,’ the photographer said.
‘We raced to the scene and encountered this sleek female jaguar stalking her prey… an unsuspecting caiman.’
The photo captures the last moments of life for the caiman.
Big cats like jaguars have extremely sensitive teeth that enable them to find blood vessels in their prey.
The orangutan is a member of the great ape family. The critically endangered primate lives in the forests of Borneo and Sumatra. This photo caught an orangutan swinging on a tree trunk like Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain.
Elephants often cover themselves in dust or mud to help protect their skin against heat and sun. This one was captured in the middle of such a dirt bath.
Orlando-based photographer Pascal Fouquet captured this SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying the X-37B spaceplane into orbit on December 28, 2023.
Japanese photographer Masayuki won third prize in his country with this photograph of a heron on a sea wall, clutching onto the concrete with its talons while snatching a fish from the water.
This photo, taken by Jesus Frias of Spain, was shortlisted for the Open Competition. It captures a tender moment between a parent and baby elephant. Elephants are known for their close relationships, including the habit of bringing flowers to the place where their family members died.
One of five images in a series, this photo shows fish, crabs, and all sorts of sea creatures taking refuge on the body of a tunicate jellyfish. To take the photos, Massimo Giorgetta lowered a light into the deep ocean and used it to attract animals.
This photo from Korean photographer Lee Jongkee captures a dreamy moment as a diver passes between the viewer and the surface of the water, seemingly hanging in nothingness.
Caught mid-meal, this great blue heron tosses a fish down its throat. Herons fish by creeping along slowly, gazing down at the shallow water for small fish. Then they strike like lightning, pulling the fish from the water.
A polar bear, outnumbered by walruses nearly its size, wanders away across the summertime Arctic landscape. Polar bears have been affected by loss of sea ice in the Arctic, which they use as hunting grounds.
A sperm whale calf is seen nursing from its mother. Because of their body shapes, the young whale must turn upside down to access its mother’s milk. Female whales give birth in tropical waters, living off their stored blubber while their calf nurses. Once the calf has developed enough, they travel back to cold waters to feed.
Photographer Kathryn Cooper captured these starlings whirling and swooping together. ‘I make my images by taking multiple successive exposures, which are overlaid onto the same print to reveal motion and behavior that would be otherwise hidden,’ she said. ‘I’m interested in freezing packets of movement to enable the appreciation of both the intricate detail and scale of the coherent movement that might otherwise go unnoticed.’
A single zebra in the midst of a herd of wildebeests. Every year, wildebeests embark on a mass migration, and sometimes they pick up hitchhikers along the way.
Two river otters play together under water. Their fur repels water, giving them a surreal, smooth appearance when photographed underwater.
This photo, one in a series of seven, shows a fennec fox in the North African Sahara Desert. These small mammals have adapted to live with very little water.
These European shag birds turned their faces into the blowing snow. Captured with a slow shutter speed, the snowflakes can almost be seen in motion.
A parent and child Japanese macaque are almost fully submerged in a hot spring. They spend much of their time in these naturally warm waters in winter.