[imagesource: Shared Parenting by Mark Boyd/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year]

The shortlisted images for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2023 have been chosen.

That means it’s time for you to cast your vote.

This year’s competition, developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London, included an incredible 49,957 entries from 95 countries. The public is invited to vote for their favourite image, either online or in the flagship Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London.

“Wildlife Photographer of the Year’s People’s Choice Award always offers an astounding selection of images, and this year is no different,” said Dr Douglas Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum.

“We invite the public to join the jury and vote for their favourite; whether breathtaking beauty or a powerful story, it’s sure to be a difficult decision!”

Online voting is until Wednesday, 31 January 2024. Let’s take a look at the contenders, beginning with the image you see up top, of a pair of lionesses devotedly grooming one of the pride’s five cubs in Kenya’s Maasai Mara.

Then, ‘Ice Bed’ by Nima Sarikhani shows a lone polar bear who carved out a bed from a small iceberg before drifting off to sleep in the far north, off Norway’s Svalbard archipelago.

In ‘Neighbourhood Dispute’ by Ofer Levy a mudskipper fiercely defends its territory from a trespassing crab in Roebuck Bay, Australia.

‘Opportunity Fox’ by Matt Maran catches a young red fox taking advantage of a bin stacked high with rubbish before collection day on a street in London, UK.

‘Bull In A Garbage Dump’ by Brent Stirton shows a bull elephant kicking over garbage as it scavenges for rotten vegetables and fruit at a dump in Tissamaharama, Sri Lanka.

‘The Happy Turtle’ by Tzahi Finkelstein captures a Balkan pond turtle who shares a moment of peaceful coexistence with a northern banded groundling dragonfly in Israel’s Jezreel Valley.

Followed by ‘Incoming Cuckoo Wasp’ by Frank Deschandol of a cuckoo wasp captured mid-air trying to enter a mason bee’s clay burrow as a smaller cuckoo wasp cleans its wings below near Montpellier, France.

‘Starling Murmuration’ by Daniel Dencescu shows a mesmerising mass of starlings swirling into the shape of a giant bird on their way to communal roosts above the city of Rome, Italy.

‘Swallow Over Meadow’ by Hermann Hirsch/Jan Lessman captures a barn swallow flying over a meadow of cornflowers, catching insects during springtime in eastern Germany.

‘Missed Sip of Milk’ by Karim Iliya shows a humpback whale calf missing some of its mother’s milk, which drifts and swirls in the currents off the coast of Rurutu, French Polynesia.

‘The Grassland Geladas’ by Marco Gaiotti shows a gelada suckling its baby alongside a companion at the edge of a plateau in the Simien Mountains of Ethiopia.

‘Snowshoes’ by Deena Sveinsson shows a snowshoe hare pulling its feet to its head to make the next big hop across the soft, deep snow in the forests of the Rocky Mountain National Park, USA.

‘Troublemaker’ by Stefan Christmann captures an Adélie penguin approaching an emperor penguin and its chick during feeding time in Antarctica’s Atka Bay.

‘Hope’ by Roberto García-Roa captures a rescued chimpanzee looking on from its enclosure at the Chimpanzee Conservation Center in the Republic of Guinea.

There are more images where all these came from, which you can check out over here.

If you’re going to vote, make sure you give them all a fair pondering chance because they’re all remarkable and memorable in their own way.

[source:discoverwildlife]