It simultaneously screams “habitat destruction” and “adaptation”, begging the question: If wildlife can adapt to our environment, why can’t we respect theirs?,’ says Kathy Moran. ‘This photograph has so many layers in terms of content and composition.

‘I hope to share with my photography that the beauty of the natural world is all around us, even in places where we least expect it to be, we just need to open our eyes and our minds,’ says Carmel. Using the family car as hide, Carmel made the most of natural light and long exposure times to capture the light trails of passing traffic.Ĭarmel was just 11 years old when he began wildlife photography, and this is his first award in the annual competition. Seventeen-year-old Carmel Bechler from Israel was awarded Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023 for his ‘Owls’ road house’, a dynamic frame of barn owls in an abandoned roadside building. Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023 He was first awarded Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2021 for his intriguing image of camouflage groupers exiting a milky cloud of eggs and sperm in Fakarava, French Polynesia. Laurent is only the second photographer in the competition’s fifty-nine-year history to be awarded the Grand Title award twice. We are looking at an ancient species, highly endangered, and also critical to human health. But, in the protected waters of Pangatalan Island in the Philippines, there is hope for its survival.Ĭhair of the jury and editor, Kathy Moran says, ‘To see a horseshoe crab so vibrantly alive in its natural habitat, in such a hauntingly beautiful way, was astonishing. The tri-spine horseshoe crab has survived for more than 100 million years but now faces habitat destruction and overfishing for food and for its blue blood, used in the development of vaccines. French underwater photographer and marine biologist Laurent Ballesta was awarded Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023 for ‘The golden horseshoe’, an otherworldly image of a tri-spine horseshoe crab accompanied by a trio of golden trevallies.

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