The 35 Best Wildlife Photos Of 2019

This Himalayan marmot was not long out of hibernation when it was surprised by a mother Tibetan fox with three hungry cubs to feed. With lightning-fast reactions, Yongqing captured the attack – the power of the predator baring her teeth, the terror of her prey, the intensity of life and death written on their faces.


As one of the highest-altitude-dwelling mammals, the Himalayan marmot relies on its thick fur for survival through the extreme cold. In the heart of winter it spends more than six months in an exceptionally deep burrow with the rest of its colony. Marmots usually do not resurface until spring, an opportunity not to be missed by hungry predators.

Bees buzzed in the long grass around the lake as evening fell. To Frank’s delight, they were settling down in little rows along the stems. These were solitary bees, probably males, gathering for the night in suitable resting places, while the females occupied nests they had built nearby.


Being cold-blooded, bees gain energy from the sun’s heat and rest at night and during cool weather. Holding tight to the stems with their strong, jaw-like mandibles, they gradually relax – their bodies lower, their wings rest and their antennae droop – until they fall asleep, waiting for the morning to come.

Audun carefully positioned this tree branch, hoping it would make a perfect lookout for a golden eagle. He set up a camera trap and occasionally left road-kill carrion nearby. Very gradually, over the next three years, this eagle started to use the branch to survey its coastal realm. Audun captured its power as it came in to land, talons outstretched.


Golden eagles typically fly at around 50 kilometres per hour but can reach speeds of up to 320 kilometres per hour when diving for prey. This, along with their sharp talons, makes them formidable hunters. Normally they kill small mammals, birds, reptiles or fish, but they also eat carrion and have been known to target larger animals too.

A raccoon poked her head out of an abandoned car and paused to assess her surroundings, allowing Jason just enough time to use a long exposure in the twilight. The back seat was an ideal den for the raccoon and her five cubs as the only entrance – through a blunt-edged hole in the glass – was large enough for her but too small for predators such as coyotes.


Raccoons tend to make their dens in hollow trees or rock crevices but they are extremely adaptable. Emerging at dusk, this mother will spend the night foraging for food for herself and her young. Raccoons are opportunistic and will eat anything from fruit and nuts to the contents of rubbish bins.

When you are eye to eye with a wild puma,’ says Ingo, ‘excitement is guaranteed.’ Tracking these elusive cats on foot meant lugging heavy gear long distances, often in freezing temperatures and unrelenting winds. Mutual respect gradually earned him the trust of a female and her cubs, allowing him to capture this intimate family portrait.


Pumas remain playful throughout their lives. Play-fighting teaches cubs vital survival skills including how to hunt, fight and escape. The cubs will stay with their mother for up to two years before gaining independence. They will live a solitary existence as adults until it is their turn to breed.

Despite the bitterly cold temperature of minus 20 degrees Celsius, Diana spent hours mesmerised by what she described as the ‘well-choreographed dance’ of a group of long-tailed tits taking turns to peck at an icicle. With the fast movement of the birds and her fingers feeling like blocks of ice, capturing their behaviour was no easy task.


Long-tailed tits live across Europe and Asia. Those living in Hokkaido, Japan, are referred to locally as Shima-Enaga. Winters there are cold and snowy and the birds must nibble on snow and ice for water. They spend their days foraging for insects and spiders and their nights huddled together in small groups for warmth.

With outstretched wings and intense eyes fixed on its prey, a bald eagle lands in fresh snow on a riverbank. Jérémie spent a week observing the behaviour of these birds from his hide. Spotting this one swooping down to catch salmon from the icy water below, he was well-positioned to capture this portrait.


To complete their life cycle, salmon return to their river of origin to spawn, dying shortly afterwards. An overabundance of dying salmon makes for easy meals for opportunistic eagles. Every year around 3,000 bald eagles gather at the Chilkat River in Alaska to feast on salmon.

In a winter whiteout a lone American bison briefly lifts its head from its endless foraging. Max purposefully slowed his shutter speed to blur the snow and ‘paint lines across the silhouette of the bison’. Slightly overexposing the shot and converting it to black and white accentuated the simplicity of the wintry scene.


Swinging their huge heads from side to side, American bison sweep away snow with their muzzles to eat the grasses and sedges buried beneath. Originally a common sight, their largescale slaughter for meat and hides brought them close to extinction in the nineteenth century. But populations are recovering and wild American bison now thrive in national parks.

It was easy to spot an emperor penguin with a hatching egg, says Stefan, because the father would frequently lift up his brood pouch to check on the chick’s progress. The problem was finding a bird facing the right direction at the crucial moment in the few minutes of good light available each day.


While his partner is away hunting at sea, the male endures the bitter Antarctic winter, without feeding, as he incubates their single egg. After a gruelling 65 to 75 days, the egg begins to hatch. Stefan watched the tiny chick struggle to crack the shell. ‘It kept closing its eyes and looked exhausted,’ he says.

Positioning his drone directly above the small lake, Sven waited for the sun to emerge from behind the clouds to capture the reflection of the sky in the lake’s mirrored surface. Contending with technical issues and battery-power shortage, his patience was rewarded by this image of ‘an aerial view that looks like an eye’.


Karula National Park in Estonia is home to goshawks, lynx, wolves and bears. The ghostly outline of dead trees surrounding this lake is a telltale sign of the thriving population of beavers inhabiting Karula. Their naturally prolific dam-building causes higher-than-usual water levels that flood the forest floor, rotting the roots of any trees growing close to the shoreline.