A badger captured glancing up at a graffiti version of itself has won the British Natural History Museum’s people’s choice award for wildlife photographer of the year.
The image was taken by photographer Ian Wood on a quiet road in St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, England.
After residents started leaving food scraps on the pavement for foxes, Wood noticed that badgers from a nearby sett were also coming to forage.
Seeing one walking along the pavement by his wall one night, he set up a small hide on the edge of the road to capture the animal reaching for food, illuminated only by light from a lamp-post.
The resulting photograph beat 24 other shortlisted images after a record 76,000 votes from around the world were counted, the museum said.
Dr Douglas Gurr, the museum’s director, said: “Ian’s flawlessly timed image offers a unique glimpse of nature’s interaction with the human world, underscoring the importance of understanding urban wildlife. His exceptional photograph serves as a powerful reminder that local nature and wildlife, often just outside our homes, can inspire and captivate us.”
Wood said winning the award was “truly humbling”, but he also highlighted the “darker side” to the image as he called for an end to badger culling in the UK, which aims to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
“I live in rural Dorset, where I’m on a re-wilding mission to enhance habitats for a huge array of wildlife,” he said. “The badger cull – which is still ongoing – has decimated their numbers and I fear that unless the cull is stopped, we’ll only see badgers in urban settings in several parts of England.
“My hope is for this image to raise awareness of the damaging effect of the badger cull and help push for change.”
The people’s choice shortlist was selected from nearly 60,000 entries to this year’s competition.
Four other highly commended images also impressed wildlife lovers, including Francisco Negroni’s photo of a double lenticular cloud over the Villarrica volcano in Chile, and Jess Findlay’s action shot of a ghostly barn owl exiting through the hayloft window of a derelict barn.
David Northall’s snap of a honey badger returning to finish off a Cape porcupine, and Michel d’Oultremont’s photo of a stoat sitting up to observe its territory across a snowy landscape in Belgium also won over voters.
All five images will be displayed online and at the Natural History Museum in London until June 29th. - Guardian
