Comedy Wildlife Photograpy Awards 2021: the mischievous monkey wins

Ken Jensen, English amateur photographer and winner of the Comedy Wildlife Photograpy Awards 2021, in 2016 he was walking on vacation in the Lonsheng Gorge, in Yunnan, China. On a bridge he took pictures of a group of rather nice golden monkeys who, curious about humans, had approached. Between them, a male from the group who wanted to show himself a little more aggressive than the others, jumped on the support wires, until a really funny expression was printed on his face. A discomfort so tangible that Ken could not fail to take and immortalize the funny expression that earned its author the first prize of the seventh edition of the award, thus winning a safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya, with Serian by Alex Walker, a unique trophy handmade by Wonder Workshop in Tanzania and a camera bag.

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards were co-founded in 2015 by professional photographers Paul Joynson-Hicks MBE e Tom Sulla who wanted to promote wildlife conservation by exploiting the humor that the animal world is sometimes capable of unleashing through funny but really hard to capture situations. By focusing on the lighter and more fun side of documentary photographic art, they have found a way to contribute to the preservation of wildlife. This year, the contest claims with 10% of its earnings, the Save Wild Orangutans a conservation program for the wild orangutans living in and around Gunung Palung National Parl, in Indonesian Borneo.

Among the categories of winning prizes, theAffinity Photo People’s Choice Award, voted on by the public, went to John Speirs for his shot in Scotland of a pigeon with a leaf on its face entitled “I Guess Summer’s Over!”The prize for the category Animals of the earth was won by Arthur Trevino with “Ninja Prairie Dog“. A photo that blocks the moment when a majestic bald eagle looks almost frightened a small desert dog, even though Arthur, the photographer, has confirmed that the dog still managed to escape immediately after the photo. Chee Kee Teo won the Creatures of the Water Award with “Time for School“a really funny photo where a young smooth-haired otter expresses with a very funny grimace her disappointment at entering the water, while her mother seems to push her after having grabbed her and pushed her forward.

A series of beautiful images are those taken by Vicki Jauron, which won the Portfolio Award per “The Joys of a Mud Bath”: The protagonist is a young elephant who enjoys doing somersaults in the mud of Matusadona Park, in African Zimbabwe. These are 4 wonderful images capable of expressing all the joy of the puppy during one of the daily activities that most amuse elephants: mud baths.

Also for the videos there is a prize: this year, the winner of the Video Category Award has been Rahul Lakhmani with the clip titled “Hugging Best Friend after Lockdown“shows a white-throated kingfisher in Delhi swooping into another, in what appears to be an enthusiastic hug after the lockdown.

In addition to the category winners, there were 10 entries that were recognized as highly regarded winners:

Andy Parkinson, Chu Han Lin, David Eppley, Jakub Hodan, Jan Piecha, Lea Scaddan, Nicolas de Vaulx, Pal Marchhart e Roland Kranitz

Here are all the photos that have received special mentions: