The Natural History Museum’s prestigious Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year festival has revealed photographs detailing the deep environments and behaviors of creatures around the world.
On Tuesday, American photographer Karine Aigner announced as the winner of this year’s grand prize for her image, titled “The Big Buzz,” which captures a ball of male cactus bees frantically mating around the only female bee on a Texas ranch.
“The sense of movement and intensity is shown in the bee’s magnification and turns the little cactus bees into competition for a single female,” said Rosamund ‘Roz’ Kidman Cox, chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year jury.
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Aigner, a former National Geographic photo editor, captured habits rarely seen in photos. Cactus bees usually live a life of solitude, but then accumulate in large numbers in mating events. Its symbol could help scientists better protect important insects, officials said.
“The typical symbol of bees is usually that of a giant colony buzzing around a honeycomb, but the vast majority of the 16,000 known bee species are solitary,” festival officials said. “These solitary bees play an important role in pollinating plants, and many of them we eat. “
Among the festival’s big winners in 58 years of history, Aigner is the 5th to win the award.
Thai photographer Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn, 16, won the 2022 Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for his symbol titled “The Beauty of Beards. “fishing and removing small prey from the ocean.
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Discover more winning images and appreciate nature more.
The Natural History Museum will present the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition on Friday 14 October in London.
Camille Fine is a trend manufacturer on USA TODAY’s NOW team.