From “Bubble Jetting Emperors”, to an awe-inspiring shot of Peyto Lake in Canada’s Banff National Park, the winning photographs of this year’s Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition are truly astonishing, and not to be missed.

The competition is now in its 48th year, and continues to attract only the finest talent. Organised by BBC Wildlife Magazine and London’s Natural History Museum, this year saw close to 50 000 entries.

Canadian Paul Nicklen was crowned as the overall winner of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his underwater shot of emperor penguins, taken at the edge of the Ross Sea in Antarctica. 14-year-old Owen Hearn was awarded the young overall winner with his photograph “Flight Paths” of a red kite and a commercial aeroplane seemingly sharing airspace.

South African Kim Wolhuter also made the winners list with his image of a lone wild dog sitting on cracked earth – it won him the Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species.

Take a look those, and other winners and entries, below.

[Source: BBC Nature]