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

A hippo with a moss mohawk, an awkward frog and a pensive chimpanzee walk into a bar.

“We’re here for the 2024 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards”, they tell the bartender, who replies: “Sorry guys, ‘Stuck Squirrel’ just walked in, you may as well go home.”

“Stuck Squirrel” is the work of Italian photographer Milko Marchetti, who has won the top spot of overall winner and mammal category of funniest wildlife awards for 2024.

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

In exchange for the photographs, Podere Pantaleone Park in Ravenna, Italy, allowed Marchetti to enter for a photoshoot while it was closed off to the public in 2022. Little did Marchetti know that the shoot would earn him the prestigious and highly competitive title of Photographer of the Year at the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards two years later.

“Generally, in Italy, especially in the area where I live, it is very difficult to see and photograph squirrels – they are very rare. But, here in the park, they are quite confident,” said Marchetti, explaining how he captured the moment.

“A few metres from the hide, an old cut tree has a hole [from] an old woodpecker’s nest, and here, the squirrels sometimes come out of curiosity to check out the old hollow tree.”

“This photo made me smile a lot in that moment that I clicked the button, and during my evenings of slideshows and nature videos that I often hold at photography clubs and theatres, the audience always explodes in energetic laughter when I show this photo. I knew I had to enter it into the competition.”

From more than 9000 entries, 45 were selected and put before a judging panel that awards winners across nine categories, including the top accolade of overall winner, and highly commended to a further 10 entries. The overall winner comes away with an Alex Walker safari trip in the Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya.

Portfolio Award Winner: “Lobb Guitar” Credit: Flynn-Thaitanunde

Founded in 2015, the awards were established by photographers and conservationists Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam to bring awareness to animal conservation in a fun and light-hearted manner through comedy photography.

One winner, “Mantis Flamenca” shot by Spanish photographer Jose Miguel Gallego Molina, who took home the Insect Category Winner title, captured the ever-so-rare moment before a praying mantis deploys its highly technical routine of the Spanish dance, Flamenco.

And no one understands the metaphor “lives in their own bubble” quite like the Reptile Category Winner, “Frog in a balloon” - by German photographer Eberhard Ehmke, who saw the introverted frog at a pond he was shooting.

Among the winners honoured with awards this year were young photographer Kingston Tam with “Awkward smiley frog,” and junior photographer Sarthak Ranganadhan with “Smooching owlets.”

Overall Winner in 2023: “Air Guitar Roo”Credit: Jason Moore

Past winners include Australian photographer Jason Moore’s “Air Guitar Roo” in 2023 and “Not so cat-like reflexes” by American photographer Jennifer Hadley in 2022.

An exhibition of images selected in the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2024 will be displayed in London at the Gallery@Oxo on the South Bank from December 11 to 15.