Wild Animals in their Natural Environment

This was a very difficult contest to judge. So many excellent images of many different species. Eventually managed to whittle it down to my 10 favourites. There are many commended images as was very hard to differentiate from so many high standard images. I decided to make this beautiful image of a lovely very white polar bear, probably a young female bear the winner, but it is only my opinion. I aay young bear because the fur looks more yellow in an older animal. The front and back legs in the air give a real impression of movement and the fact that the bear isn't looking at the photographer enhances this. Excellent image with very good sharpness on the moving animal.

I love this image, but it is such a shame that there is part of an out of focus goat in the bottom right hand corner.. By cropping the base and right hand side to remove this places the goat on the thirds and makes a much stronger image.

I like this image of the old rhinoceros in its natural environment. So sad that he was poached and that in the future there may not be any of these animals left in the wild. An iconic image of Africa.