Mammals

1st Award  MontPhoto Honor Award

The context of the story: In the winter of the Mongolian plateau, the food of the Palla's cat (Otocolobus manul) is relatively scarce. Sometimes they hunt small birds. Before dawn, a Palla's cat hunted and killed a Mongolian lark in the dark of night.

It was my dream to capture the gemsbok (Oryx gazella) on this endorheic salt pan because now I have both unique things of Namibia in one frame. I shot this using a super wide lens. For this angle I laid down flat on the ground and gave some time to the subject to feel comfortable in my presence and then I literally crawled behind the subject with my lens until I could position it with my desired scenery behind it.

A group of northern giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) are ready to start the day after a long night in the Masai Mara. They will have spent the last few hours in an upright position, as a precaution against possible attacks by predators. And it was in this position that we found this group when the sky had barely begun to lighten over the horizon. Another night, a unique sunrise in the Mara.

Golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana) live in groups, and all female monkeys have great love and compassion for their young. Especially for the young monkeys in the middle of the group, they compete to embrace each other. What a peaceful scene the little monkeys are in the arms of their families

The blue morph arctic foxes (Vulpes lagopus fuliginosus) in this area are habituated to humans, making an otherwise flighty species much easier to photograph. On my trip I was met with various weather conditions. On this day there were high winds, whipping up a cloud of spindrift swirling around the foxes creating atmospheric wintery conditions.

I found this Mountain hare (Lepus timidus) high in Scotland's winter mountains. Having worked with them for many year's I know their behaviours intimately and in this moment I knew not to move. This is the look of a very alert mountain hare, one that is aware that an avian predator, such as a golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), is passing within view. Moments later, when the eagle had passed, the hare relaxed once more.

A young and inexperienced lion (Panthera leo) decides to take on a Cape buffalo (Syncerus caffer) without imagining how much he would regret it. It was a fierce fight in which both of them end up very badly. The lion had the buffalo's horn stuck in its hind leg. In the end they both fled badly wounded. We never knew if they survived but we saw the lion 2 days later and he was still alive. He was lying with the wound under the sun.