Best Wild Animal Photos of 2008
The above photo, titled "Deadlock," landed David Maitland a 2008 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. The winners of the contest, run by the Natural History of London and BBC Wildlife Magazine, were announced last week. A photo of a snow leopard won best overall while Maitland's shot took the prize in the "Animal Behavior: All Other Animals" category. From National Geographic:
Maitland observed from midnight to 3 a.m. as a rare Morelet's tree frog doggedly refused to become supper for a cat-eyed snake--and still didn't see the conclusion.Best Wild Animal Photos of 2008 Announced
"I would love to have seen them go their separate ways, but I was exhausted," the photographer said. "The frog was all the time trying to pull the snake off, but the snake just wouldn't let go.
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Great main photo! It's a reptile eat reptile world.
Correction: Amphibian eat reptile world, or vice versa (since it is a frog, not a lizard, holding the snake at bay.)
The winner of Best Animal Portrait is my next fave.
Yeah! Troublemaker's gonna be famous! Instant icon meme.
the Natural History *Museum* of London
It's too bad that we're left wondering which one of them actually won. Great photo.
Great photos, but can I get a decapitated monkey unicorn chaser ?
What's with the frog's eye?
There's a very unusual pattern there - not like any frog pupil I would expect to see.
Anyone have any ideas - or references, or other photos - that would explain this?
The eye should be solid black. Maybe that's a reflection. Or it's a zombie.
> There's a very unusual pattern there - not like
> any frog pupil I would expect to see.
I'm guessing that you're seeing a pattern from the nictitating membrane, a thin extra eyelid found in certain animals including frogs.
Cheers,
Benito
Arrgh, I neglected to close my tag on nictitating membrane. Also, here's a set of pictures showing the membrane closing.
Cheers,
Benito
Benito,
I fixed your link. The link to your blog can go on your profile page. Thanks.
Cat-eyed snakes are actually mildly venomous, so chances are that the snake eventually won.
"You let go first!"
"No. You let go!"
"No, you..."
I've had snakes and amphibians together - even if the snake doesn't doesn't get to eat the frog, the frog will die. :(
The reptile always wins ;) - this was a forgone conclusion and any further images would have been less cool than this incredibly sweet one.
My favourite is the winner of the Underwater World category - how amazing would it be to be that guy getting investigated by the whale?!
It is also interesting to note (if you go to the NHM website) the use of simple point and shoot cameras like the Nikon Coolpix rather than expensive SLRs to capture the some of the images.