Yikes! Fox and rodent battle is top wildlife photo
It looks like it ought to be the subject of a funny caption competition but this picture taken in China's Qilian Mountains is deadly serious.
The fox has surprised the marmot and a fight is about to begin that will result in the rodent being killed.
Not even the intervention of the marmot's mother can change the outcome.
"That's nature," says Yongqing Bao, whose striking image has earned him the top prize in the 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
The shot also meant Yongqing got to share the award for the best picture in the mammal behaviour category.
Persistence pays when you are a wildlife photographer, and Yongqing had to stake out an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for several hours to be in position to catch the action.
The fox had lain very still, hoping to trap a passing marmot unawares. It worked a treat. In one of the more gruesome frames on Yongqing's camera, the fox has the young rodent's head in its mouth.
Roz Kidman Cox was the chair of judges. "The WPY competition has behaviour entries like no other. The world's top photographers in the field of animal behaviour always enter, and I have to say this image is one of the best I've ever seen," she told BBC News.
This year's junior grand prize winner is Cruz Erdmann for his night-time image of a bigfin reef squid in the Lembeh Strait off North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Cruz had entered in the 11-14 years category.
It looks like it ought to be the subject of a funny caption competition but this picture taken in China's Qilian Mountains is deadly serious.
The fox has surprised the marmot and a fight is about to begin that will result in the rodent being killed.
Not even the intervention of the marmot's mother can change the outcome.
"That's nature," says Yongqing Bao, whose striking image has earned him the top prize in the 2019 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
The shot also meant Yongqing got to share the award for the best picture in the mammal behaviour category.
Persistence pays when you are a wildlife photographer, and Yongqing had to stake out an alpine meadow on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for several hours to be in position to catch the action.
The fox had lain very still, hoping to trap a passing marmot unawares. It worked a treat. In one of the more gruesome frames on Yongqing's camera, the fox has the young rodent's head in its mouth.
Roz Kidman Cox was the chair of judges. "The WPY competition has behaviour entries like no other. The world's top photographers in the field of animal behaviour always enter, and I have to say this image is one of the best I've ever seen," she told BBC News.
This year's junior grand prize winner is Cruz Erdmann for his night-time image of a bigfin reef squid in the Lembeh Strait off North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Cruz had entered in the 11-14 years category.
