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Winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019 (15 photos)

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, founded in 1965, is an annual international showcase of the best in nature photography. This year, the contest attracted more than 48,000 entries from 100 countries. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. The owners and sponsors have once again been kind enough to share the following 15 winning images from this year’s competition. Their website has images from previous years and more information about the current contest and exhibition. Captions are provided by the photographers and WPY organizers and lightly edited for style.

The Moment. Overall Winner 2019, Joint Winner, Behavior: Mammals—It was early spring on the alpine meadowland of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, in China’s Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve, and very cold. The marmot was hungry. It was still in its winter coat and not long out of its six-month, winter hibernation, spent deep underground with the rest of its colony of 30 or so. It had spotted the fox an hour earlier, and sounded the alarm to warn its companions to get back underground. But the fox itself hadn’t reacted, and was still in the same position. So the marmot had ventured out of its burrow again to search for plants to graze on. The fox continued to lie still. Then suddenly she rushed forward, and Bao got his shot. (© Copyright Yongqing Bao / Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2019/10/winners-of-the-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2019/600130/