[imagesource: Ben Clark]

Nature is amazing.

Look at Ben Clark’s image above, of a female peacock spider taking down a much larger flesh fly.

The females are mostly unheralded, due to their relatively drab appearance in contrast to the males, and the fact that the males put on a mating dance that would put anything you’ve seen at Tin Roof to shame.

Look at him go, with some didgeridoo music added to spice things up:

Bloody majestic.

Clark says he took the picture of the female and the fly after watching a male dance on the dunes of his local beach, Woodman Point in Western Australia.

The Guardian has all the winners from this year’s Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year, which is actually open to photographers from across the globe, provided the images are taken in Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, or New Guinea.

Here are our favourites.

Dance at Dawn by Michael Eastwell, taken at Cape Hillsborough in Queensland

 ‘I visited the area for three consecutive sunrises, but it was on my final morning that I captured this beautiful spectacle, two wallabies playing on the beach as the sun burst through the surrounding clouds,’ Eastwell says.

Monochrome winner: Incoming by Jeff Freestone

Freestone captured this image in Omeo in Victoria, looking out towards Ensay, as the 2019–20 bushfires in East Gippsland began to develop. The rising smoke cloud foreshadowed the destructions the fires would bring to the region.

Animal behaviour runner-up: Dreaming by Franco Tulli

‘The animal inside the seashell is a tiny octopus about two inches in diameter,’ Tulli says of the scene captured in Lembeh Strait off Indonesia.

‘This kind of animal can utilise the valvesas a house and for protection, taking thehouse with it as it moves. This shot was taken during his quiet rest.’

Botanical winner: Ghost Mushrooms, by Callie Chee

Nicknamed ‘ghost mushrooms’ because of their eerie glow, this fungi is only found in certain forests in Australia. They glow for only a few weeks in a year and are difficult to find and photograph.

Well played, Callie.

Let’s call it there.

You can see the full list of images here.

[source:guardian]