Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2018

The Wildlife Photographer Of The Year is the largest wildlife photography competition in the world. Let that sink in for a second.

The annual international contest was started in 1964 and for its first dig had about 600 entries. Fast forward to 2018 and the panel of industry-recognised professionals are sifting through over 50,000 competition entries from 92 countries. The result is a collection of 100 truly extraordinary and perspective-changing images selected for their creativity, originality and technical excellence.

Each year, the Wildlife Photographer Of The Year exhibition is sent down under to the Australian National Maritime Museum on loan from the Natural History Museum London and is met with wide eyes and floored jaws.

Keep an eye out for the following when you visit this remarkable exhibition.

Memorial to a Species

This year’s winner is a wildly depressing, yet incredibly important image. ‘Memorial to a Species’ depicts a dead endangered Black Rhino Bull at Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve, South Africa, of which there are less than 3000 left in the wild today. It was poached for its horns less than 24 hours earlier and serves as a reminder that, as photographer Brent Stirton put it, our “natural world is threatened like never before, we have to learn to live in balance with nature or it’s over.”

Arctic Treasure

Born in Siberia in 1966, Sergey Gorshkov only picked up a lens 12 years ago and has since won BBC’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year three times. ‘Arctic Treasure’ captures the piercing moment when an Arctic fox locks eyes with Gorshkov with a recently stolen egg in its mouth.

Crabs vs Octopus

Justin Gilligan’s very bizarre encounter between a herd of spider crabs and a predatory Maori octopus won the Behaviour: Invertebrates category. It took place off Maria Island, Tasmania, and previous to the photo being taken it was an unknown site for spider crab congregations.

When: 13 April to 14 October, 2018

Where: Australian National Maritime Museum, 2 Murray Street, Darling Harbour

Opening hours: Daily 9.30am-5pm

Entry: $20

words by niall roeder

Social image: “Anticipation” – Marco Urso