Touching Photo of Lions Wins Wildlife Photog of the Year People’s Choice

The winners of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year photo contest were announced in October 2018, but now the National History Museum has followed it up with the top People’s Choice shots. The winning image this year shows a special moment between male lions.

Captured by London-based photographer David Lloyd, the photo is titled “Bond of Brothers.” Here’s Lloyd’s caption:

These two adult males, probably brothers, greeted and rubbed faces for 30 seconds before settling down. Most people never have the opportunity to witness such animal sentience, and David was honoured to have experienced and captured such a moment. The picture was taken in Ndutu, Serengeti, Tanzania.

Lloyd shot the photo with a Nikon D800E and 400mm f/2.8 lens at 1/500s, f/4.8, and ISO 500.

The photo was selected as the favorite fan photo from among 25 shortlisted images (selected from 45,000 submissions) through a vote of 16,000 nature photography fans. It now receives the Wildlife Photographer of the Year LUMIX People’s Choice Award.

Here are four other photos that made it into the top 5 by being “Highly Commended”:

“One Toy, Three Dogs” by Bence Mate, Hungary

While adult African wild dogs are merciless killers, their pups are extremely cute and play all day long. Bence photographed these brothers in Mkuze, South Africa – they all wanted to play with the leg of an impala and were trying to drag it in three different directions!

“Fox Meets Fox” by Matthew Maran, UK

Matthew has been photographing foxes close to his home in north London for over a year and ever since spotting this street art had dreamt of capturing this image. After countless hours and many failed attempts his persistence paid off.

“Three Kings” by Wim Van Den Heever, South Africa

Wim came across these king penguins on a beach in the Falkland Islands just as the sun was rising. They were caught up in a fascinating mating behaviour – the two males were constantly moving around the female using their flippers to fend the other off.

“A Polar Bear’s Struggle” by Justin Hofman, USA

Justin’s whole body pained as he watched this starving polar bear at an abandoned hunter’s camp, in the Canadian Arctic, slowly heave itself up to standing. With little, and thinning, ice to move around on, the bear is unable to search for food.
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