Need a laugh? This year’s funniest wildlife photos named

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See all of this year’s winners in the gallery above.

A high-kicking gorilla, a seabird in a headlock and a heron hitching a ride on a hippo make up the starring subjects of this year’s winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

UK amateur photographer Mark Meth-Cohn was named the overall winner for his image High Five, taken in Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains. The photograph shows a young male gorilla mid-high kick during a vigorous play session.

The image was selected from a record 10,000 entries submitted by photographers across 109 countries in the awards’ 11th year. The photo also won the mammals category award.

Meth-Cohn, who was also a finalist in last year’s awards, said his winning subject was “especially keen to show off his acrobatic flair: pirouetting, tumbling, and high kicking”.

“Watching his performance was pure joy, and I’m thrilled to have captured his playful spirit in this image.”

Topping the awards’ other categories, was a photo depicting the moment a guillemot – a fiercely territorial seabird – stares bemusedly down the lens as its neighbour’s beak begins to clamp down on its head (in the bird category), and an image of a smiley bluestriped fangblenny in the Philippines (in the fish category). In the video category, a clip of a heron “surfing” on a hippo in Kruger National Park in South Africa won over judges.

The winners were announced on December 9 at an awards ceremony in London at Gallery@Oxo.

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards were established in 2015 by photographers and conservationists Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, with the goal of drawing attention to the critical need for wildlife conservation by showcasing the entertaining and quirky side of nature.

Beyond generating awareness, the contest supports the partner charity Whitley Fund for Nature. This organisation provides crucial funding to conservation leaders working in 80 countries.

Past winners include 2024’s Stuck Squirrel showing the bushy-tailed photo subject’s legs sticking out comically from a tree trunk, and 2022’s Not so cat-like reflexes depicting a lion cub losing its grip on a tree trunk.

Images selected in the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2025 are on display in London at the Gallery@Oxo on the South Bank from December 10-14.