Youth category

At the Haute Niger National Park in Guinea, the park director showed me a room full of confiscated rifles and chainsaws. I had the idea to neatly stack everything outside and photograph it from a drone. I wanted to show just how intense the rangers' battle is against poachers who hunt animals or cut down trees in the protected area. Imagine that all of this was confiscated in just two years!

In August, the blooming of the Danube mayflies (Ephoron virgo) lasts for a month. It's a very special moment, because it only happens on the Danube above Budapest. The blooming of the Danube mayfiles returned in 2013, because the Danube was polluted before. In the background of the picture, you can see lights of the Szentendre promenade.

This image was captured in a flat, lonesome lake landscape. A Red-necked phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus) repeatedly snapped at insects floating on the water's surface. Suddenly, a large black beetle flew right in front of it. The phalarope accelerated across the water and stretched out its neck. Just before it snatched up the beetle, I managed to take this photo.

This image depicts a rare frog often called the galaxy frog due to its unique morph.Its scientific name is Melanobatrachus indicus and it was recently discovered in 1997 and is classified as vulnerable by the international union for conservation of nature (IUCN) and that is why I was very happy when I found this frog while herping under tropical trees where I found the frog among leaf litter.

The winter is the mating season for blue sheep. We discovered a herd of Greater Blue Sheep (Pseudois nayaur). The most interesting thing was that there was only one female among them. Those male blue sheep started fighting. Unfortunately, in the chaos, the only female fell off the cliff. A brave male seized the opportunity and immediately charged down. The stones nearby rolled down, raising layers of dust.

One day, whilst we were driving through the Algeciras Bay area, we spotted several white stork (Ciconia ciconia) nests near a refinery from the road. I liked the spot and thought it would be a good place to take some photos, so we decided to come back another day. When we returned, the nest was empty, which was a bit disappointing, but I waited a while and the storks turned up. That’s when I took the photo.