[imagesource: Alberto Fantoni/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020]

The image above, snapped by Alberto Fantoni, won the coveted Rising Star Portfolio Award in the Natural History Museum’s 2020 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

The winners of this year’s awards beat out a staggering 49 000 entries from around the world to land prizes across a range of categories.

The overall winner, Sergey Gorshkov, took 11 months to capture the perfect picture, and it was worth it.

The image, reports Sky News, of  Siberian tigress hugging an ancient Manchurian fir tree in the Russian Far East, was praised by the judges as a “scene like no other”:

Image: Sergey Gorshkov, winner: Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Titled ‘The Embrace’, Gorshkov used hidden cameras to capture the stunning shot.

Dr Tim Littlewood, the Natural History Museum’s executive director of science, said Gorshkov’s “emotive” photo of the tigress “offered hope”.

“Hunted to the verge of extinction in the past century, the Amur population is still threatened by poaching and logging today.

“The remarkable sight of the tigress immersed in her natural environment offers us hope, as recent reports suggest numbers are growing from dedicated conservation efforts. Through the unique emotive power of photography, we are reminded of the beauty of the natural world and our shared responsibility to protect it.”

Settle in and enjoy more of our favourite photos from the category winners in the competition:

Image: Liina Heikkinen, winner, Young Wildlife Photographer Of The Year

Image: Andres Luis Dominguez Blanco, winner, 10 years and under category

Image: Sam Sloss, winner, 11-14 category

Image: Mogens Trolle, winner, Animal Portraits category

Image: Jaime Culebras, winner, Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles category

Image: Frank Deschandol, winner, Behaviour: Invertebrates category

Image: Shanyuan Li, winner, Behaviour: Mammals category

Image: Songda Cai, winner, Under Water category

Another year, another incredible selection of photographs.

To really get to grips with how difficult judging this competition must have been, check out the snaps that were highly commended.

Stiff competition.

[source:skynews]