Seize the fear in the eye of the animal, trigger the shooting at the moment when he seems to cry out his despair at the sudden attack of the predator who will kill him and already shows his teeth.
With his photograph of a marmot surprised at the exit of its burrow by a vixen on a Tibetan plateau, the photographer Yongqing Bao obtained last year the award of
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2019
.
Shared millions of times on social media, this incredible snapshot has been seen by at least 2 billion people around the world.
Who will be Yongqing Bao's successor this year?
100 photos were selected from among 50,000 by an international jury to obtain the coveted title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020. While the results will be revealed in exactly ten days, on October 14, Le Parisien was able to preview some of these images.
Often taken on the spot, they demanded treasures of patience from their authors.
Sometimes hours or days of "stash" to get the perfect shot.
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In the footsteps of animal image hunters
Like this red squirrel, literally jumping on a branch, when he sees a couple of Ural owls in a forest on the island of Hokkaido in Japan.
Photographer Makoto Ando spent three hours in the cold, hidden behind a log, waiting for the right moment to trigger his camera.
How to imagine that a squirrel appears on the same trunk as the owls, when the latter are crazy about these small rodents.
"Animal photography requires a deep knowledge of nature, obliges you to blend in with the environment and to fully understand the behavior of the animals you approach", explains the president of Biotope, Frédéric Melki.
Biotope is the naturalist book publishing company that has compiled the complete list of the competition in a book to be published in mid-October.
In the allotment gardens of north London, young foxes fight over a dead little rat./Matthew Maran / Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020
For fifty-six years since the London Natural History Museum
s
organizes this unavoidable appointment of "paparazzi" of nature.
Open to everyone (professionals and amateurs, adults and young people from all over the world), this photographic challenge is “a plea for the preservation of our natural heritage”.
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The year 2020 having been marked by monster fires across the planet and record droughts with colossal impacts on biodiversity, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year has adapted to this burning news.
“In the past, the competition favored the aesthetics of the images and the rarity of the species photographed,” explains Frédéric Melki.
Today, nearly a quarter of the photos selected are intended to raise awareness among the general public about deforestation, poaching or the mistreatment of animals kept in captivity.
“On one of the strong images of this edition, we see for example bears and tigers in a deplorable state in the heart of a small circus in Russia.
In Fakarava Atoll (French Polynesia), mollusks start to move to graze fields of algae and coral reefs./Laurent Ballesta / Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020
"The jury is looking for pictures that tell a story" specifies the president of Biotope.
Like this photograph by French Quentin Martinez taken in a market in northern Sulawesi in Indonesia.
We see a trader cutting fruit bats, offering pythons or… rat skewers for sale!
"Local hunters and traffickers bring wild mammals
(Editor's note: including endangered primates)
and reptiles to be sold with domestic cats and dogs," explains the photographer in the caption of his work.
“Since the Covid-19 epidemic, suspected of coming from an identical Chinese market, it has been asked for the abolition of this type of butchery concerning wild animals in Indonesia”, recalls the organizer of the photo competition.
A pair of puffins in the Farne Islands (England).
In spring, they sport their brilliant breeding plumage.
/ Evie Easterbrook / Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020
“Certain images actually contribute to the general public's awareness of certain issues,” insists Frédéric Melki.
We show the beauty of nature and the ugliness that results from the destruction of this beauty.
But the competition still fully retains its primary vocation: to inspire dreams by showing wildlife in all its splendor.
“You will notably see photos taken in marine environments inaccessible to ordinary people,” says the editor.
And especially rare animals that we did not even suspect the existence such as these multicolored parasitic wasps with giant legs or these whitish shrimps living in the crevices of the coral.
"
In the windswept Swiss Alps, acrobatic figure of yellow-billed chocards./Alessandra Meniconzi / Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020
Since its inception half a century ago, the competition has also benefited from developments in shooting technology. Photographers can now capture the presence of an animal at night without flash. Also set camera traps in the middle of the jungle or remote forests to “capture” the image of animals that are not easily approached by humans. Like this Slovenian bear hardly visible to the naked eye "on the prowl" or this jaguar, which ended up being surprised after several months by a photo trap installed in the heart of the Guyanese forest.