A stoat “dancing” over the snow, a David Bowie spider and a jaguar going for the kill are among the first images released from this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year. More than a dozen highly commended images have been unveiled on Thursday by the Natural History Museum for this year’s competition. It comes ahead of the winners being announced at a ceremony hosted by TV presenters and conservationists Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin on October 8.
Among the newly released images, which received highly commended awards in their categories, are Jose Manuel Grandio’s joyous image of a stoat jumping high into the air over fresh snow and young photographer Sasha Jumanca’s shot of two curious tawny owlets. Randy Robbin’s photo of the frosted body of a deer on the forest floor was also unveiled as the first-ever awarded smartphone image. A jaguar delivering a fatal bite to a caiman in the Pantanal in Brazil was captured by British photographer Ian Ford.
Meanwhile, Theo Bosboom’s image showed how mussels bind together to avoid being washed away from the shoreline in Sintra, Portugal. Also among the 14 images that have been released are shots of lions mating with a backdrop of storm clouds in Tanzania, a Pallas’s cat staring down the lens as the moon sets in China, a jackdaw bringing stones to its nest in London, and a requiem shark in a final act of resistance in the bycatch of a ship in the South Atlantic. An exhibition of the top 100 images submitted to the .