Nuzzling Foxes and Huddling Monkeys Vie for Photo Award

Three golden snub-nosed monkeys huddle together to keep warm in the cold. Two red foxes snuggle in an intimate moment. A crested guineafowl enjoys a scratch from a friend.

These photos are among the 25 shortlisted images that are vying for the People’s Choice Award in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. They were chosen from 38,575 entries that came from 93 countries.

They include “Fox Affection,” above, photographed by Brittany Crossman of Canada. She photographed the nuzzling red foxes on Prince Edward Island as they greeted each other.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. The top People’s Choice pick will join the winners of the annual competition that were announced earlier this year and are showcased at the museum.

You can cast your ballot online for your favorite. Voting ends Feb. 2, 2023. 

Here’s a look at some of the other shortlisted nominees.

"A Golden Huddle"

Minqiang Lu of China photographed two females and one male golden snub-nosed monkeys huddling in the cold in the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi province.

Minqiang walked up a mountain for nearly an hour in heavy wind and snow to find the spot where he knew monkeys often rested. He photographed them from a slope opposite the tree where they were huddled, spending about 30 minutes in minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) temperatures to capture this photo.

"That's the Spot!"

Richard Flack spotted a flock of crested guineafowl in Kruger National Park in South Africa. Not as flighty as most of these birds, this group allowed him to follow them while they foraged. He saw one pause with its mouth and eyes wide as a friend scratched its head.

"‘It’s not often you get to capture emotion in the faces of birds, Flack said, "But there was no doubt—that was one satisfied guineafowl!"

"Caribbean Crèche"

 It was summer in the Ría Lagartos Biosphere Reserve on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico when Claudio Contreras Koob photographed this colony of Caribbean flamingos, also known as American flamingos. He was lying in the mud far away as he watched the flamingo groups gather in groups called creches. When the chicks started to approach Koob, the adults gently herded them back to the main colony.

"Wasp Attack"

Roberto García-Roa of Spain watched a battle between a pompilid wasp and a Ctenus spider in the Peruvian jungle of Tambopata, Peru. The action stopped for a moment while the wasp checked the spider to be sure it had been paralyzed by its sting, before dragging it back to its nest.

"The Frog with the Ruby Eyes"

Jaime Culebra watched this female Mindo glass frog sit quietly on a leaf in the Rio Manduriacu Reserve, Ecuador, while the calls of male frogs were heard all around her. Culebras carefully moved his equipment close to capture the frog's distinctive "ruby" eyes to capture a portrait without disturbing her.

"Head to Head"

Miquel Angel Artús Illana was surprised when he spotted two female muskoxen attacking each other. He had been following a muskox family in Norway’s Dovrefjell-Sunndalsfjella National Park when he saw another family appear. The two males didn't spar, but the two females began a short, intense fight, which he captured in his photo.

"Holding On"

In this heartbreaking photo, a baby baboon clings to its mother, which had just been killed by a leopard in Zambia's South Luangwa National Park Altuna kept watching as the big cat walked back to her cub, who played with the baboon baby for more than an hour before killing it.

"Snowshoe Hare Stare" 

Deena Sveinsson was snowshoeing in the forest of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, looking for wildlife to photograph. She was cold and ready to head home when she spotted a showshoe hare sitting on a mound of snow. She waited until the hard turned and looked right into the camera.

"World of the Snow Leopard"

Sascha Fonseca used a camera trap to capture this snow leopard in front of the mountains of Ladakh in northern India. Fonseca took the photo during a three-year project where he used bait-free camera traps in the Indiana Himalayas. He said he is fascinated by the species because of their stealth and their remote environment, which makes them so difficult to photograph in the wild.

"Coastline Wolf"

Perched in a small boat on the coast of Vancouver Island, British Colombia, Bertie Gregory was looking for black bears. Instead, he spotted a female gray wolf moving along the shoreline. He set up his remote camera where he expected her to travel, then backed off. She walked right past the camera and Gregory took this image with his remote trigger. He found out that the wolf was later killed by a man who said he was protecting pets.

"Among the Flowers"

 Martin Gregus watched this polar bear cub playing in the fireweed on the coast of Hudson Bay, Canada. The cub would take breaks, standing on its back legs and sticking its head out to look for its mother. Gregus placed in camera at ground level in the fireweed, waiting with a remote trigger to capture the moment the cub popped up among the flowers.