World Nature Photography Awards: Orangutan and owl feature in winning photos

Canada’s Thomas Vijayan received a £700 cash prize for his superb shot of a Bornean orangutan in ‘The World is Going Upside Down’. Mr Vijayan was crowned the overall winner of The World Nature Photography Awards

Harry Skeggs captured this impressive shot of Ulysses, one of the last remaining great tuskers, in Kenya. African elephants are commonly referred to as ‘tuskers’ because their tusks reach the ground

Photographer Vittorio Ricci caught the moment two European common brown frogs ‘kissed’ in Aveto Regional Natural Park in Genoa, northern Italy

Andre Fajardo was pictured freediving early one summer morning as the fish circled him in the clear blue waters off the coast of the Hawaiian Islands 

Robert Nowak captured this eerie-looking black and white shot of whitebark pine trees in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area in Oregon, USA

This northern giant petrel definitely needs a bigger boat as it appears to tower the vessel. The photograph taken by Naomi Rose came runner-up in the People and Nature category

Heiko Mennigen photographed the moment a cape buffalo spied over a rampart at a waterhole in Hoedspruit, South Africa  

Vladimir Cech, of the Czech Republic, captured a cunning red fox walking over a log during a bitterly cold night

A great horned owl appears to have morphed into a flying saucer in this shot from Alberta, Canada. The photograph was taken by Dale Paul and emerged victorious in the Animals in their Habitat category 

Gunther de Bruyne, of Belgium, shot the moment hunters dehorned a white rhino at the Thanda Safari Game Reserve, South Africa. Thanda means ‘love’ in Zulu and the reserve covers 14,000 hectares

Janus Olajuan Boediman of Indonesia was awarded a Bronze for this shot of two weaver ants. Weaver ants live in trees and are renowned for their nest building skills. The ants construct nests by weaving leaves using larval silk  

Joseph Shaffery got up close and personal with a small skipper butterfly in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. Small skippers spend the majority of their time resting among vegetation

Endy from Singapore caught this hilarious moment of a green crested lizard burping in a Singapore. This shot came in the top three of the Behaviour Amphibians and Reptiles category

Darren Donovan captured this image of a muddy white rhino bull in South Africa. It’s feared that there are only 20,000 white rhinos remaining on Earth

Dipanjan Pal’s ‘Glacial Veins’ and Dr Tze Siong Tan’s ‘Heart Wheel’ came top in the Nature Art and Behaviour Invertebrate categories. Entries flooded in from all across the globe

A Bengal tigress was snapped prowling in a water hole at the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in India 

Femke Van Willigen’s ‘The Inside Joke’, which showcased an excitable-looking Eurasian red squirrel, was among the winners in the Bronze in Animal Portrait category 

Nabarun Majumdar, of India, took this shot of a trio of sub-adult tiger cubs cooling off and splashing in the water

Alessandro Gruzza’s vivid shot of a snow-covered Mount Cavallazza. The peak is part of the Fiemme Mountain range located in Trentino-South Tyrol, Italy

Jasper Goodall captured this shot of scorched pines in the aftermath of a forest fire in Surrey 

This photograph showcases a forest in the Gutai Mountains, Romania during late autumn. Most of the leaves have fallen off the trees but a few remain in the shot named ‘The Last Leaves’ 

Pavlos Evangelidis, of Greece, came third in the Nature Art category with his colourful shot of a parrotfish while in the Maldives

Graham Moon’s effort Toad in the Road came in second place among an array of stunning snaps of reptiles and amphibians. The photo was taken by the River Orchy, Tyndrum, Scotland 

Andy Pollard, of the Falkland Islands, catches the moment a sedge wren seemed to perform the splits. Sedge wrens are often found in grasslands and meadows where they nest in the tall grasses.

Lisa Roeder was awarded a ‘Bronze’ for this effort ‘You are My Sunshine’. Pictured: a Clark’s grebe with her newborn chick on the water in San Luis Obispo County, California

Melissa Robertson’s incredible shot of a sea slug in Colorado, USA. The photograph came second in the Behaviour Invertebrates category

Patrick Nowotny snapped the moment two lions were caught fighting in Serengeti, Tanzania. Mr Nowotny was victorious in the Behaviour Mammals category

Adriana Rivas snapped an ‘addicted’ coati rummaging around the bushes in the Foz do Iguasu national park in the state of Parana, southern Brazil

A storm appeared to be on the horizon as Mustafa Demiros captured the waves hitting a gloomy-looking Tenerife coast 

Jocelyn Chng snapped two smooth-coated pups minding their own business in Punggol, Singapore. This snap came second in the Urban Wildlife category

A kongori pictured galloping through the grassy plains of the Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda. Kongoris are a type of African antelope and their life expectancy is between 11 and 20 years in the wild.

Doron Talmi, of Israel, emerged victorious in the Plants and Fungi category with this stunning shot of bald cypress in a swamp. The plant is hardy and tough and is native to the southeastern United States

Mark McInnis photographed this surfer looking for a wave but instead they found a landscape as stunning Alaskan peaks dominate the background

Danielle Siobhan, of the Netherlands, was runner-up in the Plants and Fungi category for this foggy-looking shot of the northern Andes in Columbia

Shawna Hinkel captured ‘Morning Solitude’ during sunrise over the Green River Lake in Wyoming, USA. Pictured is a lone rower on the vast open waters