It’s hard to believe the shot is real: it’s that good. But a photo of a rare Iberian wolf—a subspecies of the gray wolf—jumping a fence has won the 45th Veolia Environment Wildlife Photo of the Year award. The photographer, Jose Luis Rodriguez, has said that he hopes the haunting image will inspire the people of Spain to be proud to have this endangered animal still roaming their countryside.
As usual the contest has brought amazing photos and photographers together in one place. The best Young Photographer of the year award went to Fergus Gill who captured two yellowhammers squabbling over oats in the winter.
A close-up shot of a jaguar buffeted by green leaves in Brazil’s Pantanal won the Gerald Durrel Award for Endangered Wildlife. The jaguar is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List. While, a photo of a Bornean pygmy elephant—a subspecies of the Asian elephant—peering through the foliage on the Kinabantangan River in Borneo won runner-up in the category. The subspecies, which is the world’s smallest elephant, is considered Critically Endangered.
Winner of the One Earth prize, which is meant to highlight conservation issues, is a lone fir tree standing in a clearcut of old growth forests in Washington State.
All the winning images will be displayed beginning October 23rd at the Natural History Museum in London. The Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year is owned by the Natural History Museum and the BBC.
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(04/22/2009) Biodiversity – from tigers in Bhutan to gila monsters in the United States to Horned beetles in Africa to tube worms in hydrothermal vents in the deep ocean to sea cucumbers living on the coral reefs of Madagascar to the mites on your cheese – is makes life on Earth livable for our species. By extinguishing hotbeds of biodiversity – rainforests, wetlands, coral reefs, and grasslands – we are destroying a part of ourselves. Biodiversity will recover after humanity is gone, but in the meantime, the continuing loss of our fellow species will make Earth an awfully crowded, but lonely place.
Earth Day photos reflecting our world’s beauty
(04/22/2009) With Earth Day fast becoming just another commercial holiday — albeit one where most people still have to go to the work — mongabay is taking a visual approach to capture the beauty that surrounds us. Here are around 120 photos I’ve taken at sites around the world, most of which were snapped in the past five years. The animals pictured are in their natural settings — no zoo or aquarium specimen are included. I’ve done my best to name most of the creatures pictured, although I haven’t been able to identify many of the insects.
(12/24/2008) Running mongabay requires the commitment of several full-time jobs but it also offers opportunities to meet remarkable people and visit some interesting and beautiful places. In addition to writing, I try to take pictures during my travels (when possible). Below are 50 or so of my favorite photos from 2008, although there are many I wasn’t able to include.