Seal hunting a penguin under water wins 2021 World Nature Photography Awards

Mar 9, 2022 by Dunja Djudjic 1 Comment

The World Nature Photography Awards (WNPA) is one of those contests that remind you how versatile, beautiful, unique, but also dangerous and merciless the natural world can be. The competition has just announced its 2021 winners, and it’s a selection of absolutely stunning images.

This year’s overall winner is Amos Nachoum from the USA with his image of a leopard sea moments from capturing a Gentoo penguin. But have no doubts that there are many more awesome photos among the contest’s 13 categories that I’m sure you’ll love!

Amos Nachoum waited patiently for hours on the remote island of Plano, off the Antarctic Peninsula, to capture his winning image. When the tide is low, the seals stealthily enter a lagoon and search for their prey. The photographer captured the right moment, and it brought him overall first place in the contest and a cash prize of $1000. What’s more, his image also won first place in the Behaviour Mammals category.

As I mentioned, there are also category winners and runners-up in each of the 13 categories:

Animal Portraits
Animals in their habitat
Behaviour amphibians and reptiles
Behaviour birds
Behaviour Invertebrates
Behaviour Mammals
Black and white
Nature art
Nature photojournalism
People and nature
Planet Earth’s landscape and environments
Plants and fungi
Urban wildlife

In other words, the jury has selected the 39 best photos of the contest and kindly shared them with us. You can admire them below and find out more on the WNPA’s website. And if you’d like your photos to be in the selection next year, now’s the time to submit them! Finally, if you can’t get enough of these beautiful images, make sure to check out the last year’s selection, too.

Animal Portraits

©Tom Vierus/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Neelutpaul Barua/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Amit Eshel/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Animals in their habitat

© Thomas Vijayan/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Celia Kujala/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Christian Tuckwell Smith/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Behaviour amphibians and reptiles

© Shayne Kaye/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Massimo Giorgetta/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Patrick Nowotny/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Behaviour birds

© Ashok Behera/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Robert Ross/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Robert Maynard/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Behaviour Invertebrates

© Chin Leong Teo/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Lincoln Macgregor/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Irina Petrova Adamatzky/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Behaviour Mammals

© Amos Nachoum/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© William Fortescue/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Buddhilini de Soyza/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Black and white

© Vince Burton/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Avanka Fernando /The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Michael Stavrakakis/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Nature art

© Federico Testi/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Monika Schneider/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Gabriel Barathieu/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Nature photojournalism

© Alain Schroeder/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Alexej Sachov/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Bence Mate/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

People and nature

© Sabrina Inderbitzi/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Mike Eyett/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Dr Gaetano Gargiulo/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Planet Earth’s landscape and environments

© Sam Wilson/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Alessandro Gruzza/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Rie Asada/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Plants and fungi

© Gautam Kamat Bambolkar/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Vladislav Tasev/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Jan Czeczotka/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

Urban wildlife

© Matthijs Noome/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Mohammad Murad/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

© Alex Pansier/The World Nature Photography Awards 2021

About Dunja Djudjic

Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.

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Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.