[imagesource: Gerardo Flores]

Conservation through humour – that’s the focus of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, “most probably the world’s funniest photography competition,” according to the organisers.

Paul Joynson Hicks and Tom Sullam, both professional photographers, started the awards in 2015 due to their passion for wildlife.

Now, anyone who has a funny bone can join in for free, sharing their lighthearted shots of wild animals in the air, on the land, and underwater – three of the six categories for the competition.

The competition supports a new sustainable conservation organisation every year, and this year’s choice is the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN), a British charity that helps conservation leaders working in their home countries across the global South.

Last year’s competition winners had some daringly hilarious shots, and this year we can expect the same.

That image above of two cheetahs messing around in Masaai Mara, Kenya is one teaser preview ahead of the competition awards, per Forbes.

It was shot by Gerardo Flores and titled with a cute joke; ‘Brother you can’t play hide and seek, you’re spotted!’:

“It was the very first day of our trip to Kenya when we spotted two cheetah brothers just resting during sunset,” said Flores. “When one of them started rolling on the ground, I took my camera out and started shooting. The result is a cheetah cracking a lovely laugh.”

Flores might be on to something, as the main prize for the competition is a safari in the Maasai Mara.

Let’s take a sneak peek and a giggle at the other entries for this year.

Here’s Greg Harvey’s ‘The Proposal: Alaskan Brown Bear’ taken at Lake Clark National Park in the US:

Is it just me or do they look too young to wed?

‘Let me tell you a joke’ was submitted by Fija Mills from Noordwijk in the Netherlands:

Then we have a monkey enthralled by the local news in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, India, shot by Hrithik Singh:

“This monkey came to the yard of my house and I gave him bread, wrapped it in paper. After eating the bread, the monkey started ‘reading’ the newspaper,” the photographer explained.

Next, we have ‘The Original Angry Bird’, a Least Bittern doing the splits, by Jennifer Beck Lyndhurst shot in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, US:

This adorably gross and grossly adorable shot of a young Mountain Gorilla taking a deep dive while mom wasn’t looking was taken in Rwanda by Rick Beldegreen:

Lastly, we’ll consider this Red Fox diving face-first into a snowy hole to get its hands on an escaping vole.

It was shot by Shayne McGuire in Yellowstone Park, US:

Folks still have the opportunity to submit as entries will only close on September 1.

We’re looking forward to more fluffy feels from the other entries as the competition progresses.

[source:forbes]