Beauty in the Wild: Winners of the 2023 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition
Participants in this year’s competition—celebrating its tenth anniversary—were encouraged to present photographs that depict Earth’s diverse life forms and highlight the numerous challenges our planet is confronting. The images were initially featured in bioGraphic, a digital publication dedicated to nature and restoration, and the authorized media partner for the California Academy of Sciences BigPicture Natural World Photography Contest. The event coordinators have graciously shared a selection of the winners and finalists with us. The captions were crafted by the bioGraphic editorial team and have been modified for stylistic purposes.
Table of Contents
Grand Prize
Photo Story: A Matter of Time
With a wildlife corridor passing through their property, a retired couple living on the outskirts of Asheville, North Carolina frequently find four-legged visitors at their back porch, including this beautiful American black bear (Ursus americanus). In fact, residents of Asheville are known for their close relationship with wild black bears in the area. This photographer theorizes that through this coexistence, these bears may be growing more intelligent and increasingly bold—resulting in close contact like that featured here.
Aquatic Life
Urchins are often vilified in media coverage of changing kelp forests—they’re the most visible cause of kelp forest loss, devouring algae and replacing lush forests with spine-studded barrens. But in this remarkable photo we see how urchins belong to kelp forests as much as the kelp itself does; more importantly, they play a crucial role as detritivores—eating dead algae and feeding marine life higher up the food chain. Ultimately, urchins are trying to survive in changing seas just like kelp; the loss of their kelp forest homes is a consequence of climate change from which they also suffer.
Terrestrial Wildlife
A difficult scene shows a snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and a Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manual) both engaged in a struggle for survival—one to feed and the other to stay alive. It is remarkable to see them together at all but especially in this light, as they are typically not active during the daytime. Unfortunately for this Pallas’s cat, she picked an inopportune time to go hunting for pikas for her kittens, and even more unfortunate, these squat felids cannot outrun a leopard due to their stocky bodies. This photographer, with help from forest rangers and permission from the local government, fed her orphaned kittens with road-killed pikas from the area until the cats were able to fend for themselves.
Winged Life
Xiamen City is home to thousands of egrets, earning it the nickname ‘the island of the egrets.’ At first blush, this image captured there appears to be a simple photo of an egret getting a surprise jump from its prospective meal. Then, a moment of delight—the meal is chasing a meal of its own!
Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora
In 2015, a fire in Jasper National Park necessitated the evacuation of nearly a hundred people and ended up spanning several thousand hectares; months later, this photographer returned to the site and was impressed by the area’s resilience. Though the rocky bottom of the mountainside gives the illusion that the spruce trees are still ablaze, the rich foliage assures that this is a park in recovery—but for how long?
Art of Nature
This year’s Art of Nature winner serves as a photographic Rorschach test! The photographer mentions a range of reactions and theories as to what the mesmerizing lines might be part of. A coastal scene with waves crashing on the cliff or sand rippled with waves in the deep desert? We’ll keep you in suspense no longer: It’s the underside of a mushroom, likely a member of the Lactarius family. The photographer notes that he was drawn back to the unusually vibrant colors displayed on the gills, the blue color in particular, which might indicate the presence of psilocybin or psilocin. Trippy indeed!
Human/Nature
Lit by natural light, a veterinary student cradles and nuzzles a newly rescued, four-month-old common wombat (Vombatus ursinus) named Maude. Baby wombats, with their highly sensitive noses, especially appreciate such close contact. Despite their name, the number of wombats like Maude are on the decline, making this tender photo an even starker reminder of our greater role in their species’ survival.
All images and sources from bigpicturecompetition.org
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