Winners Of This Year’s Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards Tickle The Funny Bone

A laugh is always appreciated after a long day or any day for that matter. That’s why the winning photos from the annual Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards are always such a welcome treat. After months of judging and whittling down to 40 finalists from 5000 entries the 2022 winners have finally been announced!

Drum roll, please…here are the images declared the winners that are sure to tickle your funny bone.

OVERALL WINNER 2022 & ALEX WALKER’S SERIAN CREATURES OF THE LAND AWARD

A 3-month-old lion cub showed off his not so cat-like reflexes. He was in a tree with his sibling. “The other lionesses were in other trees and on the ground. He wanted to get down and walked all over the branches looking for the right spot and finally just went for it. It was probably his first time in a tree and his descent didn’t go so well. He was just fine though after landing on the ground,” says Jennifer Hadley. “He got up and ran off with some other cubs.”

“Honestly, when I saw all the finalists come out, I was just happy to be among them but I never expected to win,” says Hadley. “There were so many amazing and funny animal photos in the group, and I had such a laugh looking through them.”

“I really love this photo contest because it’s just so different from anything else and really shows off the personalities of the animals plus it helps raise awareness of various wildlife and funds conservation efforts so it’s just really awesome to be a part of this,” Hadley added.

AFFINITY PHOTO 2 PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Talk To The Fin! Jennifer Hadley wins again for her photo of these two penguins. Two gentoo penguins on the Falkland Islands were hanging out on the beach when one shook himself off and gave his mate the snub.

SPECTRUM PHOTO CREATURES Of THE AIR AWARD
A hippo yawning next to a heron standing on the back of another hippo sure looks different at first glance!

JUNIOR AWARD
A spotted owlet hides in a pipe and gives its photographer an “I CU boy” pose.

CREATURES UNDER THE WATER AWARD
Arthur Telle Thiemann was happy the triggerfish didn’t bite him. Instead, they gave him a big smile. “Even they may look funny, these fish can be quite aggressive,” he writes. “In this case they didn’t attempt to bite me, but the domeport of my camera housing ended up with some scratches… life is hard… at least it wasn’t me who was hurt.”

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Emmanuel Do Linh San followed a group of meerkats on foot in the Kalahari Trails Game Reserve, in South Africa. He caught this fun moment that “reminds us of humans when one of your friends jokes about you and you pretend to strangle them and, in response, they open their mouth like a simpleton.”

This salmon decide to punch the bear in the face rather than be lunch.

Apart from its beauty, Cape Hillsborough is renowned for its resident kangaroos and wallabies. I visited the area for three consecutive sunrises, but it was on my final morning that I captured this beautiful spectacle, two wallabies playing / fighting on the beach as the sun burst through the surrounding clouds.

Is that Pegasus, the flying horse? Jagdeep Rajput reveals “Actually this is Indian Saras Crane attacking a Bluebull from behind, the bull happened to venture close to Saras’s nest, where in, it had laid a single egg. The Saras Crane, which is tallest flying bird in the world, opened its huge wings and attacked the bull from behind, driving the bull away from the nest.”

Two King Penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus) at Volunteer Point in the Falklands. The righthand bird may have an inscrutable expression but it must be wondering where its mate’s head has gone.

“Excuse Me… Pardon Me! A duckling walking/waddling across a turtle covered log at the Juanita wetlands. The duckling fell off after a few turtle crossings, it was cute,” said Ryan Sims.

A monkey taking a nap at the Baphuon Temple in Cambodia is checked on by his friend.

It’s a tight fit for this Eastern Screech Owl and owlet. While in a park in Florida Mark Schocken spotted a nest. “One morning, a few days before the two owlets fledged, one owlet tried to squeeze into the nest hole with Mom, maybe to see the outside world for the first time. It was hilarious….The moment lasted only a few seconds as Mom didn’t seem very happy with the arrangement.”

Looking like he belongs in the Matrix movie series, a red squirrel jumps during a rainstorm and is captured mid-air.

After getting a shrimp snack from the photographer on a Florida beach, a raccoon gives him a thanks.

Portfolio Winner

The juvenile cooper’s hawk has a dream to become a football star. It is practicing.

You can see more of the images that were in the running this year here.

Each year the competition supports a sustainable conservation organization, with this year’s recipient being the Whitley Fund for Nature (WFN) a UK charity that supports conservation leaders working in their home countries across the Global South.

To find out more about the Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards, vote for your favorite, and to possibly enter in next year’s competition visit their website at Comedywildlifephoto.com.