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Winners of the Nature’s Best Photography competition Winners from the Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards will be on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History from March 30 to Jan. 6. See more award-winning photography at
www.naturesbestphotography.com
.
Winner: Grand Prize
African Cape buffalo lock horns in Kenya. Photographer Federico Veronesi said he watched the buffalos fight for more than two hours. During the dry season, males form small groups of bachelors that fight to establish a hierarchy. Federico Veronesi is a photographer and safari guide who has his own tent in Maasai Mara National Reserve, where he camps among the wildlife.
Federico Veronesi
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NBP Awards
Winner: Birds
A spoonbill warns off another already occupying a tree branch at the Smith Oaks Rookery in High Island, Tex. A social bird, the spoonbill lives in large colonies with other wading birds. Its feathers get their rosy pink color from the crustaceans in its diet.
Michael Rosenbaum
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NBP Awards
Winner: Small world
A fly lands for a split second on the head of a vine snake, staying only long enough for photographer Robin Moore to release her shutter in Choco, Colombia. Slender and arboreal, vine snakes can reach lengths of 6 1/2 feet. Slow moving, they depend upon camouflage for protection.
Robin Moore
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NBP Awards
Winner: Art in nature
A goby darts out from a coral reef in Pantar Island, Indonesia. A few well-camouflaged platyctene comb jellies can be seen clinging to the coral. The coral reefs surrounding the village of Beang Abang on Pantar Island are largely unexplored and contain an amazing diversity of fish and invertebrates.
David Hall
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NBP Awards
Winner: Conservation photographer of the year
A polar bear cub waves from the warm haven of his mother’s arms after being woken up from a deep slumber by a squirming sibling in Manitoba, Canada. Wyoming photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen’s outdoor ethics are deeply rooted in a childhood filled with adventure along the Platte River in Nebraska. There, Mangelsen gained a passion for the wild that launched a lifetime commitment to the natural world.
Thomas D. Mangelsen
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NBP Awards
Winner: Zoos and aquariums
A mother giraffe affectionately nestles her head into the arched neck of her newborn at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City. After a 15-month gestation, a calf begins life with a five-foot drop: Females give birth while standing up. A newborn stands about 6 feet tall and can recognize its mother by her coat's distinct pattern.
Barbara von Hoffmann
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NBP Awards
Winner: Oceans
Photographer Nuno Sa encountered a blue shark 10 miles off the coast of Faial Island in Azores, Portugal. It is the world's most frequently caught open-water shark and a primary species supplying the shark fin trade. The removal of this important predator affects the entire oceanic ecosystem.
Nuno Sá
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NBP Awards
Winner: People in nature
A bodyboarder performs an aerial maneuver at Noordhoek Beach in Cape Town, South Africa.
Lee Slabber
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NBP Awards
Winner: Power of nature
Both natural and human causes ignited the Fourmile Canyon fire. Days-old smoldering embers were rekindled by the winds while dense, short trees provided avenues for the flames to climb up to higher branches.
David Bahr
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NBP Awards
Winner: Endangered species
Photographer Michael Lambie, who shot the proboscis monkeys at a sanctuary in Malaysia, observed an adult male bringing two juveniles to heel. The dominant feature of the proboscis is the male's large nose, which is used as a resonating chamber to amplify his call.
Michael Lambie
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NBP Awards
Winner: Wildlife
Photographer Florian Schulz observed Arctic wildlife, including a polar bear family, during an expedition from a small, ice-going vessel. This cub was intrigued by its reflection and was studying it with great interest.
Florian Schulz
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NBP Awards
Winner: Plant life
A Japanese maple , or palmatum, in Oregon. Swedish doctor-botanist Carl Thunberg traveled to Japan in the 18th century and named this maple after the hand-like shape of its leaf. Gardeners all over the world grow the Japanese maple for its leaves' shapes, colors and fine texture.
Peter Lik
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NBP Awards
Winner: Animal antics
A grizzly cub is captured mid-scratch on a riverbank as its mother fishes for salmon in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Every other year, females produce one to four offspring that weigh about only about one pound. The protective mother cares for her young for up to two years.
Andy Rouse
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NBP Awards
Winner: African wildlife
Photographer Lee Slabber followed a pride in Kalahari for days, focusing on one youngster who was always causing trouble. In this image, his father had been trying to sleep. The cub kept climbing over the adult's head until the lion growled to warn it to back off. In a moment of brave defiance, the youngster just glared back at his dad.
Lee Slabber
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NBP Awards
Winner: Youth photographer of the year
A red fox bears the cold in Cascade Mountains in Washington. This highly adaptable species thrives in diverse habitats from urban areas to tundra, desert and forest. The red fox is the most widely distributed wild carnivore in the world, naturally occurring in North America, Asia, Europe and North Africa. Jess Findlay is an 18-year-old-student from southwestern Canada who often hikes the Pacific Northwest wilderness with his family.
Jess Findlay
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NBP Awards
Winner: Landscapes
This view shows the 8,907-foot Cima D'Ambrizzola (center) and the 8,717-foot Mount Ponta Lastoi de Formin (right) in Dolomites National Park in Italy. The Dolomites of northeastern Italy are renowned for the carbonate rock that creates the range's dramatic shapes and colors.
Samuel Bitton
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Lioness and Zebras
Andrey Gudkov
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Bonobo Family
Joe Vogan
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Monument Valley
Anna Day
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Quiver Tree
Isak Pretorius
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Burrowing Owls
Rob Palmer
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Japanese Cranes
Andre Gilden
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Japanese Macaques
Stephen Belcher
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Dall Sheep
Phyllis Burchett
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Jaws of Ice
Sergey Zalivin
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Moonrise over Wildebeast
Max Seigal
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Kilauea Volcano
C.J. Kale
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Sunrise at Grinnell Point
Harry Lichtman
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Polar Bears
Thomas Kokta
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Polar Bear Hug
Linda Drake
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Ice Patterns
Orsolya Haarberg
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Ash Plume
Hans Strand
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Yellow-Crowned Night Heron
David Moynahan
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
European Bee-eaters
Mike Anderson
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Ladybug on Anemone
Magdalena Wasiczek
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Western Tarsier Adult
Nick Garbutt
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Bearded Tit
Edwin Kats
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Photographer at Zion Narrows
Phillip Colla
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Southern Stingray
Davide Vezzaro
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Whale Shark
Edoardo Di Pisa
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Caribbean Flamingos
Donna Eaton
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Arum Lily Frog and Dragonfly
Lee Slabber
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Strawberry Poison Dart Frog
Sue Flood
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Springbok
Carol Polich
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NBP Awards
Highly Honored
Lion and Cub
Paul Mckenzie
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NBP Awards
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