The 55th Wildlife Photography of the Year Exhibition Immerses Visitors in the Natural World’s Spectacular Diversity

The exhibition depicts the incredible diversity of life on Earth, from displays of seldom seen animal behaviour to secret underwater worlds.

The highly anticipated Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition has opened at London’s Natural History Museum. Now in its fifty-fifth year, the world-famous competition and exhibition is running until May 31, 2020. It showcases remarkable animal behaviour and the mind-blowing assortment of life on Earth by talented photographers across the globe.

This year’s competition attracted almost 50,000 entries from professionals and amateurs across 100 countries. The overall winners, chosen by a panel of international experts, were announced on October 15, at an awards ceremony in the Natural History Museum’s marvelous Hintze Hall. The best images are selected for their creativity, originality and technical excellence.

Chinese Yongqing Bao, who is from Qinghai, scooped the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 award for The Moment, a head-turning image that shows a standoff between a Tibetan fox and a marmot. Persistent Bao had to stake out an alpine meadow in China’s Tibetan Plateau for several hours before he snapped the fox surprising the marmot, who seemed frozen by fear. Cruz Erdmann, a 14-year-old from New Zealand, won the competition’s other top prize, Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019, for Night glow. His peaceful portrait is of an iridescent big fin reef squid captured during a night dive in the Lembeh Strait, off Indonesia. The two images were selected from 19 category winners and are on show in stunning lightbox displays with 98 other incredible photographs.

After the flagship exhibition at the Natural History Museum, the stunning photographs will undertake a UK and international tour, including Canada, Spain, the United States, Australia and Germany. This will enable millions to take in the exquisiteness and fragility of the natural world, as well as see fascinating animal behaviour and get to know extraordinary species.

Entries for the next Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition are being accepted until December 12. Open to everyone, the competition welcomes submissions from photographers of all ages and abilities.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year was founded in 1965 by BBC Wildlife Magazine, which was then known as Animals. The Natural History Museum, now the sole organiser and owner, became involved in 1984.

Here are the winning images from this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Behaviour: Mammals
The Moment by Yongqing Bao, China (also Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 overall winner)