Wildlife Actually Can Be Pretty Hilarious, And These Photos Will Show You How

“This bald eagle was trying to grab the prairie dog, but he failed. And then the prairie dog jumped towards him, and the bald eagle got so surprised that he escaped to a burrow close by! It was a very interesting thing to witness.”

“I think at this point, you’re familiar with the feeling of isolating inside with your family when you just want to get out and go about your day. These eastern raccoon kits are experiencing the exact same thing. You think that the tree hollow is just too full, but then you see the mother raccoon and she shows you how compact the space is. You see babies trying to climb awkwardly on their mom and each other, trying to take a look at the outside world at the same time. I took this photo in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. After exploring a specific area with a couple of tree hollows, I identified it as a popular spot for raccoon families. Because raccoons will move from den to den, usually not spending more than one night at a time in a particular den, finding an area with a number of options is key to photographing the animals. I came across this family and immediately worked on leveling the camera with the hole to find the best angle. After I got the camera and tripod ready, the baby raccoons were extremely curious (and they really made my job easier), sticking their heads out for a closer look!”

“I found this young lion in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. He was probably laughing at my photography skills.” So, do they have any changes and improvements in the competition this year? We talked to Tom Sullam, the co-founder of the CWPA to find the answer to this question: “Since the pandemic we’re dealing with at the moment has a huge effect on world travel this year, we thought that we might receive fewer entries than usual, but surprisingly we have managed to get lots of entries so far and especially with the ‘In The Air’ category, we have receives hundreds on incredible bird pictures. Perhaps the fact that we have all had to spend more time at our homes recently and the lack of travel opportunities has meant more people are noticing wildlife closer to home, just outside their kitchen worlds- which is absolutely amazing.”

“I managed to capture this moment while photographing a group of Pier starlings perched in a tree at the Rietvlei Natural Reserve in South Africa. I think this is how a lot of us feel on most Monday mornings.”

“So this Yellow Bittern was trying its best to get into a comfortable hunting position. I managed to capture the animal when it was between 2 stalks of lotus flower.”

“I captured this springbok, all ears and lanky legs, when it was pronking, right when it was in midair. The sun was rising over the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park at that moment. We don’t exactly know why the Springbok pronk but according to some theories, it’s a way of showing fitness and strength to ward off predators and attract mates. I’ve also heard that this small, skinny, and largely underappreciated antelope pronks out of excitement as well. Jumping out of happiness!” “Typically, we receive around 7,000-8,000 photos and hope to get the same this year, with possibly not so many elephants or hyenas,” added Sullam. “But the amazing thing about this competition is that wildlife is everywhere, which is why we feel so eager to conserve it. Our winner of the overall prize was a shocked squirrel a couple of years ago, so there’s no excuse not to enter the competition.” For those of you who don’t know, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards tries to bring awareness to conserving wildlife through photographic comedy-one that gradually grows with every passing year. If you like what they’re trying to do, you may also consider sponsoring them to make their voice heard more.

“These penguins were enjoying themselves while surfing on the waves and they were looking so happy!”

“I took this photo at Curaçao, Dutch Caribbean. It can be a real challenge to photograph a boxfish, as they do not have a problem with a diver coming close, but if they understand you’re interested in them, they always turn the back and not the face to you. So I just tried to swim 0.5m above the fish and tried to show no interest at all to him. I also had my camera not directly in front of me, but below at my chest pointing to the bottom. When I thought it was the right moment, I turned the camera 90 degrees to the front and just pointed and shoot, hoping to have the fish in the focus. Even I couldn’t believe how amazing this photo turned out to be afterwards!”

“Even though they look like they are dancing in the photo, this was taken when two Western Grey Kangaroos were fighting and one missed kicking him in the stomach.” We were curious about the photos the CWPA team ended up loving the most throughout the years: “If I speak for myself, it has to be one of the winning images in 2017, of 3 owls resting on a tree branch...except one of them isn’t resting, but instead, he/ she is wrestling to hold on to the branch, while the others are trying to ignore the clowning/goofing around taking place. We all ended up liking this photo very much. I remember we were all laughing out loud really hard.”

“The baby hippo was desperate to catch the attention of his mother, but the mother was not really willing to give any.”

“Just look at the expression on the face of this fish. It tells everything.” You can still send your submissions to the contest, but the Comedy Wildlife Photography Award Team has released a collection of their best entries thus far. It’s safe to assume this year’s going to be amazing when you take a look at these! You can send the images you took for this contest until the end of June 2021.