Smart News | December 17, 2024 3:58 p.m.

Check Out 14 Hilarious Winners From the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards Contest

From an “awkward” smiling frog to embarrassing owl parents, this year’s winners of the entertaining annual competition won’t let you down

an owl with wide eyes looks out of a tree at a woodpecker

A red-bellied woodpecker peers into a hole in a tree and spots a very alarmed-looking young screech owl. The photograph, which was highly commended in the contest, is titled "You're not my mother." © Randy Herman / Nikon Comedy Wildlife

Margherita Bassi

Daily Correspondent

The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards has announced the highly anticipated results of its tenth annual contest. On December 10, the competition unveiled an overall winner, nine category winners and ten highly commended entries in an entertaining gallery. Having garnered 9,000 submissions, 2024 marks the most competitive year yet of the self-described “funniest and most popular photography competition in the world.”

The contest was founded in 2015 by photographers and conservationists Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam with the aim of organizing a “refreshing, fun and free” photography competition “unlike any other” to raise awareness about conservation, according to a statement emailed to Smithsonian magazine.

“Issues of wildlife conservation and sustainability are gaining momentum globally, yet the messages and images tend to be negative, depressing and enervating,” Joynson-Hicks says on the contest’s website.

Instead, the page continues, this comedic competition “accesses our empathy by showing how alike we really are. You don’t need to cover your eyes or look away. We want our viewers to share our enjoyment of nature and take the time to recognize its value.”

In that spirit, photographers of all levels and ages are invited to send in submissions.

“This year’s competition received a record number of entries, each one a testament to the power of photography in evoking emotion,” Stefan Maier, senior general manager of marketing at Nikon Europe, says in the statement. “We look forward to continuing to inspire the next generation of wildlife photographers through these wonderful awards.”

Without further ado, here are this year’s winners:

Milko Marchetti from Italy was crowned the overall winner for his photograph called “Stuck Squirrel,” earning him the title of Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The five finalists were all within a few points of each other, according to the statement, but Marchetti’s image was “popular across the board with the judges,” and ultimately took first place.

“I have taken many, many photographs of squirrels in many situations over the years in Italy, but this one struck me as really funny and such a strange position, because it is that exact moment when the squirrel is detaching its back legs from the trunk to enter its hide,” Marchetti explains in the statement. “Whenever I show this image at the nature seminars at my local photography club, the audience always explode with raucous laughter, so I had to enter it!”

Marchetti captured the photograph on April 23, 2022, in a park frequented by a few red squirrels. He clicked the shutter at just the right time to make the animal look stuck, only partially in the tree.

The photograph “brilliantly captures the playful and unpredictable moments that make nature so enchanting,” Maier says in the statement. As the overall winner, Marchetti will receive a Kenyan safari, a handmade trophy from Tanzania and a photography bag.

Jose Miguel Gallego Molina from Spain won the insect category with his image called “Mantis Flamenca.”

“On my way back from my photo walk in a swamp near my town (Pantano el Sitjar), I suddenly stopped my car on the road when I saw someone ordering me to stop. This was when I saw my friend the Flemish Mantis for the first time,” he recounts. “You can imagine the faces of the other cars passing by, seeing a car with the indicators on and the door open, stopped on the roadside and a madman lying on the ground with his camera in his hand.”

Nikon young photographer category winner: "Awkward smiley frog" by Kingston Tam © Kingston Tam / Nikon Comedy Wildlife

Kingston Tam from Australia won the Nikon Young Photographer Award, a category for photographers 25 years old or younger, with his picture titled “Awkward smiley frog.” He says he developed a passion for “herping” several years ago, or looking for reptiles and amphibians.

“My goal for my images is to bring attention to our scaly or moist friends, showing that not only fluffy animals can be cute and beautiful,” Tam adds. “Ultimately, I wish my work could bring more conservation awareness to these amazing reptiles and amphibians, and that’s been my motivation to keep doing what I’m doing.”

Sarthak Ranganadhan from India took home 2024’s Nikon junior category for 16-year-olds and under, with “Smooching owlets.”

“Our parents always find a way to embarrass us,” explains Ranganadhan, who is 16 years old. “I guess that’s also true in the case of spotted owlets.”

“It was truly a funny sight to see two owlets trying to get some privacy as their little offspring stood next to them with a grin shut eyes,” Ranganadhan adds. However, he was not the youngest winner in this year’s competition.

That distinction goes to 10-year-old Flynn Thaitanunde-Lobb from England, who isn’t just this year’s youngest winner, but the youngest category winner in the competition’s history. He took home the top prize in the portfolio category with a series of four images featuring a squirrel playing with a stick. Describing the creature’s apparent action in each shot, he named the portfolio “Dancing to the Music, Rock Guitar, Roly Poly, Weight Lifting.”

An image from the portfolio category winner, Flynn Thaitanunde-Lobb's "Dancing to the Music, Rock Guitar, Roly Poly, Weight Lifting." © Flynn Thaitanunde-Lobb / Nikon Comedy Wildlife

The judges gave the video category to Kevin Lohman from the United States for his aptly named “Fox with the zoomies!” clip, which captures a red fox rolling around on a cold morning.

“I had been watching this fox walking slowly across the grass when it suddenly got the zoomies like my dog does after its bath. It started rolling around on the ice-covered grass, then sliding, then shaking it off like nothing happened,” he says.

Fox with zoomies — Video category winner: "Fox with the zoomies" by Kevin Lohman © Kevin Lohman / Nikon Comedy Wildlife

Other category winners include Eberhard Ehmke, who captured a frog with its head in a bubble to win the reptile category; Damyan Petkov, who won the bird category with a whiskered tern’s crash landing; Przemyslaw Jakubczyk, who won the fish and other aquatic animals category with a photo that seems to show a fish chasing an eagle; and Tapani Linnanmäki, who won the people’s choice category with a white-tailed eagle ruffling its feathers.