Nature in all it’s glory, and gory: National Geographic names its best pictures of 2016
FROM polar bears to terrifying tornadoes and stunning meteorite strikes, iconic magazine National Geographic has revealed its best pictures of the year.
THEY have captured nature at its most divine and most devastating, at its most amazing and astounding. Iconic magazine National Geographic has revealed its most incredible and inspiring pictures of 2016 after announcing the winners of its Nature Photographer of the Year contest.
From a stunning sardine hunt off the coast of Africa involving dolphins, sharks, penguins and whales, to a terrifying tornado threatening a town in Wray, Colorado to a meteorite roaring into the Earth’s atmosphere above the Western Ghat mountain range of Southern India the images illustrate the stark, scary and staggering beauty of our planet.
Selected from thousands of entries, an underwater photo of sardine migration off the Wild Coast of South Africa, titled “Sardine Run” by Frenchman Greg Lecoeur was selected as the “grand-prize” winner.
Lecoeur snapped the picture in June 2015, after waiting two weeks to witness the hunt for sardines so dramatically captured in the winning photo.
“During the sardine migration along the Wild Coast of South Africa, millions of sardines are preyed upon by marine predators such as dolphins, marine birds, sharks, whales, penguins, sailfishes and sea lions,” Lecouer said.
“The hunt begins with common dolphins that have developed special hunting techniques to create and drive bait balls to the surface. In recent years, probably due to overfishing and climate change, the annual sardine run has become more and more unpredictable.”
Varun Aditya, of Tamil Nadu, India, won the Animal Portraits category for a photo of a green vine snake entitled “Dragging you deep into the woods”.
Vadim Balakin, of Sverdlovsk, Russia, took out first place in the Environmental Issues category for a photo of polar bear remains in Norway; and Jacob Kapetein of Gerland, Netherlands, was victorious in the Landscape category for a shot of a small beech tree in a river titles “Struggle of life”.
Lecoeur’s photo also won the Action category in the 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year contest.
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