Wildlife Photographer Of The Year: Tadpoles take the top prize from almost 60,000 entries of world’s greatest animal and nature pictures
A marine conservation photojournalist’s “magical” picture shining a light on the underwater world of a tadpole species has earned him the title of Wildlife Photographer Of The Year.
Shane Gross, from Canada, captured the western toad tadpoles while snorkelling through lily pads in Cedar Lake on Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
He managed to snap a cloud of the amphibians, which are a near-threatened species due to habitat destruction and predators, while avoiding the visibility-reducing layers of silt and algae covering the bottom.
Titled The Swarm Of Life, the photograph has been crowned the winner of the Natural History Museum’s prestigious Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2024 competition out of a record-breaking 59,228 entries, from 117 countries and territories.
Kathy Moran, chair of the jury, said they were “captivated by the mix of light, energy and connectivity between the environment and the tadpoles”.
This is the first time the species has been featured in the competition, which is now in its 60th year, she added.
Life Under Dead Wood
Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, from Germany, was awarded the title of Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year, for an up-close image featuring slime mould on the right, and a macroscopic animal called a springtail on the left, taken in Berlin.
Tinker-Tsavalas used a technique called focus stacking, combining 36 images with different areas of focus together.
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Judges said it showed great skill and “incredible attention to detail, patience and perseverance”.
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the competition, impact awards for both adult and young photographers were introduced this year, recognising conservation success.
Recording By Hand
The young impact award was given to Liwia Pawłowska, from Poland, for her image of a common whitethroat taken during a bird ringing, a technique that records length, sex, condition and age to help scientists monitor populations and track migration.
Hope For The Ninu
In the adult category, Australian photographer Jannico Kelk picked up the prize for a picture of a greater bilby, a small marsupial also referred to as the ninu, which was one near extinction due to predators such as foxes and cats. Fenced reserves, however, have allowed the population to grow.
Here are the other category winners.
Free As A Bird – Alberto Roman Gomez, Spain (10 and under)
Alberto watched from the window of his father’s car at the edge of the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park, in Cadiz, Andalusia, to take this picture – managing to capture the stonechat bird as it was perched, between trips to gather insects.
An Evening Meal – Parham Pourahmad, USA (11-14)
Parham visited the Ed R Levin County Park in Milpitas, California, most weekends over a summer to take photographs showing the wildlife living in a busy city park. This picture shows a young Cooper’s hawk eating a squirrel in the last rays of sunset.
Frontier of the Lynx – Igor Metelskiy, Russia
A lynx stretches in the early evening sunshine in the Lazovsky District in Primorsky Krai, Russia. The remote location and changing weather conditions meant access was tricky, and it took more than six months of waiting for Metelskiy to capture the image of the elusive animal.
On Watch – John E Marriott, Canada
This image also features a lynx, this one with its fully grown young sheltering from the wind behind it. Marriott had tracked the family group for almost a week through snowy forests in Yukon.
Practice Makes Perfect – Jack Zhi, USA
A young falcon practises its hunting skills on a butterfly above its sea-cliff nest. This was taken in an area in Los Angeles, California, visited by Zhi over the past eight years.
A Tranquil Moment – Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod, Sri Lanka
This picture shows a young toque macaque sleeping in an adult’s arms, taken after a morning of photographing birds and leopards at the Wilpattu National Park. Vinod spotted a troop of the macaques moving through trees above, and used a telephoto lens to frame this moment as a young monkey slept between feeds.
Wetland Wrestle – Karine Aigner, USA
Karine Aigner was leading a tour group when she noticed an odd shape in the water along the Transpantaneira Highway, in Mato Grosso, Brazil – binoculars confirmed she was looking at a flash of a yellow anaconda, coiling itself around the snout of a yacare caiman.
The Demolition Squad – Ingo Arndt, Germany
Arndt’s image shows the dismemberment of a blue ground beetle by red wood ants – carving the dead animal into pieces tiny enough to fit through the entrance to their nest in Hessen, Germany.
The Artful Crow – Jiri Hrebicek, Czech Republic
This perching carrion crow, pictured in Basel, Switzerland, looks almost like an impressionist painting, judges said. To create the effect, Hrebicek moved his camera in different directions, while using a long shutter speed.
A Diet of Deadly Plastic – Justin Gilligan, Australia
A mosaic created from some 403 pieces of plastic found inside the digestive tract of a dead flesh-footed shearwater, taken on Lord Howe Island, New South Wales. Gilligan took the picture while documenting the work of Adrift Lab, which brings biologists from different countries together to study the impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems.
Old Man of the Glen – Fortunato Gatto, Italy
Gatto captured these pale “old man’s beard’ lichens on a gnarled birch tree in the pinewoods of Glen Affric, in the Scottish Highlands. The lichens indicate it as an area of minimal air pollution – in a forest which has stood for at least 8,300 years, according to pollen analysis.
Under the Waterline – Matthew Smith, UK/Australia
Smith used a specially made extension he designed for the front of his underwater camera housing to create this split image of a leopard seal beneath the Antarctic ice in Paradise Harbour. The young seal made several close, curious passes, he said. “When it looked straight into the lens barrel, I knew I had something good.”
Tiger in Town – Robin Darius Conz, Germany
A tiger sits on a hillside against the backdrop of a town where forests once grew in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India. Conz was following the big cat as part of a documentary team filming the wildlife of the Western Ghats.
Dusting for New Evidence – Britta Jaschinski, Germany/UK
Jaschinski spent time at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) border force department, where confiscated animal products are tested. This image shows a crime scene investigator from London’s Met Police dusting for prints on a confiscated tusk at Heathrow Airport.
Dolphins of the Forest – Thomas Peschak, Germany/South Africa
Peschak documents the relationship between endangered Amazon river dolphins, which are also known as botos or pink river dolphins, and the people with whom they share their home in the waters of both Brazil and Colombia.
The Serengeti of the Sea – Sage Ono, USA
Sage Ono decided to take up underwater photography after being inspired by stories told by his grandfather, a retired marine biologist. This image, taken in the kelp forests in the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, California, shows tube-snout fish eggs sparkling next to the glowing kelp.
The Wildlife Photographer Of The Year 2024 exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum, London, on Friday 11 October
Entertainment
The Kessler twins, German dance stars in the 50s and 60s, die in ‘joint suicide’, police say
The Kessler Twins, German sisters famous across Europe for their singing and dancing, have died together through assisted means, local police have said.
Content warning: this article contains references to suicide
Munich officers said in a statement on Tuesday that Alice and Ellen Kessler had died by “joint suicide” at their shared home in Grunwald. They were 89.
The German Society for Humane Dying, a group in support of assisted dying, told Sky’s US partner network NBC News that the sisters had “been considering this option for some time”.
It added they had been members for more than a year and that “a lawyer and a doctor conducted preliminary discussions with them”, and said: “People who choose this option in Germany must be absolutely clear-headed, meaning free and responsible.
“The decision must be thoughtful and consistent, meaning made over a long period of time and not impulsive.”
In an interview last year with the Italian news outlet Corriere della Sera, the sisters said they wished to die together on the same day.
Read more: Why is assisted dying so controversial – and where is it already legal?
Alice and Ellen Kessler on stage in Stuttgart on 21 November 2006. File pic: AP
A ban on assisted dying in Germany was overturned by the country’s federal court in 2020.
While the practice is not explicitly permitted, judges said at the time the previous law outlawing it infringed on constitutional rights.
Alice and Ellen were born in 1936 and trained as ballet dancers in their youth. They began their entertainment careers in the 1950s after their family fled from East Germany to West Germany.
Professionally known as The Kessler Twins, they were then discovered by the director of the Lido cabaret theatre in Paris in 1955, launching their international career.
In 1959, the sisters also represented a now-unified Germany at the Eurovision Song Contest, held in Cannes, France.
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Throughout the 1960s, Alice and Ellen toured the world, moved to Rome, and performed with singers Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra and Harry Belafonte.
Both sisters continued to perform together into later life, appearing on stage in a musical at 80 years old.
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK.
In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK
Entertainment
Anna Maxwell Martin: Actor says primary school tests ‘devastating’ for children with special educational needs and disabilities
Actor Anna Maxwell Martin and a group of parents have warned that primary school tests have “devastating effects” for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
They have written an open letter to the government asking ministers to consider reforming SATs (standard assessment tests) to accommodate the youngsters’ needs.
The 22 parent groups say the system is damaging for children with SEND and they want to see a more inclusive approach which incorporates the needs of the individual child.
The letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the current system “actively harms” children with SEND, leaving them often disengaged from school as they move on to secondary school.
Maxwell Martin, who has starred in TV comedy Motherland and police drama Line Of Duty, said: “The government needs to look much harder at how to make things better for children in schools, particularly children with SEND.
“This is a systemic failing within our assessment system, not the fault of any individual teacher or headteacher.”
What has research found?
Research by the SEND parent group said only 24% of SEND children passed the SATs, and 67% of SEND children did not want to attend school because of them.
Half of the parents questioned also said their child’s self-esteem was damaged, and they believed SATs would have a lasting negative impact.
File pic: iStock
‘Change the system’
The letter to Ms Phillipson said: “Forcing children into a system that actively harms them is not the answer. Changing the system so that our children want to attend is.”
But some think SATs do not serve any child.
Lee Parkinson MBE, a primary school teacher and education consultant from Manchester, said SATs are a negative process for all children, not just children with SEND.
He told Sky News: “SATs don’t serve any child, let alone those with SEND. They were never designed to support learning.”
He called the tests a “blunt accountability tool, a stick to beat schools with, rather than something that helps teachers understand children”.
Primary school teacher Lee Parkinson
‘Speed rewarded over understanding’
Mr Parkinson claimed SATs were “built to catch pupils out. They reward speed over understanding and memorisation over genuine thinking”.
“That alone disadvantages huge numbers of children, but for pupils with SEND the gap becomes a chasm. Processing speed, anxiety, sensory needs, working memory difficulties, language disorders… none of these are accounted for in a system that measures every child by the same stopwatch and mark scheme.”
Mr Parkinson added: “For many SEND pupils, success in school looks like communication gains, emotional regulation, confidence, independence and steady academic growth in a way that matches their needs.
“SATs don’t measure any of that. Instead, they label, limit and distort the reality of what progress actually looks like for the children who need thoughtful, personalised provision the most.”
The open letter also said children with SEND who failed SATs “spend their entire year 6 convinced they are not clever enough”.
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‘Urgent need for rethink’
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at school leaders’ union NAHT, said there is an “urgent need” for the government to rethink the value of SATs.
“If statutory tests are here to stay, they must be designed to be accessible for the vast majority of pupils, they should recognise the attainment and progress of all children, and they should not damage children’s confidence or cause distress,” she said.
What does the government say?
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Primary tests and assessments play a vital role in helping schools ensure every pupil can achieve and thrive, while also identifying those who need additional support.”
“The government’s independent, expert-led Curriculum and Assessment Review panel shaped key recommendations aimed at improving our national curriculum, and included key insights from SEND experts.
“We are actively working with parents and experts to improve support for children with SEND, including through more early intervention to prevent needs from escalating and investing £740 million to encourage councils to create more specialist places in mainstream schools.”
Entertainment
Anthony Joshua ‘about to break the internet over Jake Paul’s face’ in Netflix boxing match
Boxer Anthony Joshua is set to mark his comeback to the ring with a surprise heavyweight bout against Jake Paul in Miami.
The former world heavyweight champion and YouTuber-turned-boxer will face off in a match consisting of eight three-minute rounds, with both boxers using 10oz gloves.
The 36-year-old hasn’t fought since September 2024, when he suffered a shock loss to British compatriot Daniel Dubois at Wembley in the fifth round of their IBF world heavyweight title fight.
Anthony Joshua. File pic: Reuters
Joshua, who goes in with a record of 28 wins and four losses, promised the American “no mercy” ahead of his comeback.
“I took some time out, and I’m coming back with a mega show. It’s a big opportunity for me. Whether you like it or not, I’m here to do massive numbers, have big fights and break every record whilst keeping cool, calm and collected,” he said.
“Mark my words, you’ll see a lot more fighters take these opportunities in the future. I’m about to break the internet over Jake Paul’s face.”
If Jake Paul wins, he’ll be in the running for a title, according to his manager, Nakisa Bidarian, chief executive of Most Valuable Promotions.
Jake Paul. File pic: Reuters
He said: “For Jake it’s doing the impossible, silencing the doubters and putting himself in a position to be in conversation for a belt, and he gets that if he beats Anthony Joshua.
“And for Joshua it’s pretty simple: he’s been out for quite a bit of time, he comes back and does one of the biggest events in the world, and if he knocks out Jake Paul he will be idolised by many within boxing.”
He continued: “What we’ve accomplished in four years with Jake, with no amateur background, with no Olympic pedigree, makes everyone kind of take a step back and say, ‘What is going on here? How is this possible?’
“It angers people in boxing that we can come in and get as much attention and notoriety as we have, as quickly as we have.”
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‘Joshua could inflict horrendous damage on Paul’
Paul was due to face Gervonta Davis this month, but the bout was cancelled after a civil lawsuit was filed against the WBA lightweight champion.
The 28-year-old, who has a 12-1 record, last fought at heavyweight when he beat Mike Tyson by unanimous decision in November last year, in what was the then 58-year-old’s first fight in 19 years, before following that up in June with another unanimous decision victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
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Paul labelled the fight in Miami as “Judgement Day.”
“A professional heavyweight fight against an elite world champion in his prime. When I beat Anthony Joshua, every doubt disappears and no one can deny me the opportunity to fight for a world title.
“To all my haters, this is what you wanted. To the people of the United Kingdom, I am sorry. On Friday, December 19, under the lights in Miami, live globally only on Netflix, the torch gets passed and Britain’s Goliath gets put to sleep.”
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