[imagesource: Miroslav Srb/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2022]

Animals do not struggle with releasing their inner child.

Probably because animals are much like children in that they don’t have to think about the war halfway across the globe, inflation and the cost of food and fuel, or whether or not the power is going to go out.

Okay, they do have to worry about starvation, predation, and parenting, but they do it in such an entertaining manner that it feels more bearable than the load we humans have to carry each day.

Besides, we’re so far from our animal-like ways that we need to watch them intently and with unbridled curiosity to be reminded that we, too, are animals on this planet.

What I am trying to tell you is that the finalists of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2022 have been announced, and animals are hilarious and amazing and I wish I was more of a monkey than a person sometimes.

Sensational, I know.

This young proboscis monkey looks shocked to its very core in this snap taken in Kinabatangan River, Sukau, Borneo by finalist Andy Evans:

Maybe that stare has nothing to do with me and more to do with pegasus, the flying horse:

Although this blue bull looks ready to take flight it is actually an Indian Saras Crane attacking the bull from behind after it happened to venture close to the Saras’ nest, per The Telegraph.

Next, this king penguin that appears to have lost its head:

Another trick of perspective shows a yawning hippo that appears as if it’s about to make very short work of a heron in Kruger National Park:

Okay, I don’t want to be a monkey with a kid, because this long-tailed macaque mum is not coping:

Being a lion comes with more benefits, like cat-like reflexes.

Nope, I guess I take that back as this three-month-old lion cub totally bombed when trying to get out of a tree on the Serengeti in Tanzania:

This screech owl opting to hop rather than fly as it made its way around Hungary does a better job:

Then again, these monkeys playing ‘doctor doctor’ at a Cambodian temple are living their best life:

Can I choose to be a monkey again rather?

By the looks of this distinctly unimpressed lioness in the Olare Motorogi Conservancy, Kenya, perhaps not:

Yes, ma’am, anxiety-filled human it is then.

By the way, the winner of the competition will be announced on December 8, with the top prize being a one-week safari in Kenya as well as a handmade trophy from Tanzania, per Sky News.

We previously covered some other amusing shots from the competition, if you need to waste a little more time today.

[sources:telegraph&skynews]