National Geographic's Best wild life photos of 2019
This rare image of a Tibetan fox and a marmot in the moment before attack won Chinese photographer Yongqing Bao the top distinction of Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
PHOTOGRAPH BY YONGQING BAO
Fourteen-year-old Cruz Erdmann won Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year with this underwater image of an iridescent bigfin reef squid, captured on a night dive.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CRUZ ERDMANN
Shangzhen Fan won the "animals in their environment" category with this aerial photograph of a herd of chiru antelope on a snow-covered slope in China's Kumukuli Desert.
PHOTOGRAPH BY SHANGZHEN FAN
This ethereal image of a frog migration in southern Italy, by Manuel Plaickner, won the award for "amphibian and reptile behavior."
PHOTOGRAPH BY MANUEL PLAICKNER
Norwegian photographer Audun Rikardson won the "bird behavior" category with this camera trap photo of a golden eagle surveying the landscape. It took three years for this eagle to become accustomed to the camera's presence.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AUDUN RIKARDSEN
For this image of a puma in Patagonia attempting to take down a guanaco, shot for a December 2018 National Geographic story, Ingo Arndt shared the top award in the "mammal behavior" category with Yongqing Bao. No one had photographed this hunt in detail before, Arndt says.
PHOTOGRAPH BY INGO ARNDT
This photograph of an ant-mimicking crab spider won Indian photographer Ripan Biswas the top award in the "animal portraits" category. The tiny insect took Biswas by surprise—he'd been documenting an ant colony when he noticed the intruder, disguised to look like an ant to infiltrate the group.
PHOTOGRAPH BY RIPAN BISWAS
Stefan Christmann won top distinction in the "portfolio award" category, for his work on the Ekström Ice Shelf in Antarctica. He captured this image of more than 5,000 emperor penguins on a freezing cold day during a brief moment of twilight.
PHOTOGRAPH BY STEFAN CHRISTMANN
National Geographic photographer David Doubilet won the "under water" category for his photo of an elusive deep-sea colony of garden eels. The eels, which emerge vertically out of burrows in the sand, are difficult to photograph. Doubilet stashed his camera in the middle of the field of burrow holes and hid behind a shipwreck. When the eels popped up, he clicked his shutter remotely.
PHOTOGRAPH BY DAVID DOUBILET
This photograph of a lone bison during a snowstorm in Yellowstone National Park won Max Waugh the "black and white" category. He slowed his shutter speed to blur the snow and made his image black and white to accentuate the stark simplicity of the scene.
PHOTOGRAPH BY MAX WAUGH
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