See the winning images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A fishing spider stretches out silk from its spinnerets to weave into its egg sac in this image, which won the award for Invertebrate Behaviour. Israel-Canadian photographer Gil Wizen discovered the spider under loose bark. The spiders are common in wetlands and temperate forests of eastern North America. More than 750 eggs have been recorded in a single sac.

A young elephant performs underwater for spectators in Thailand. This image, by Australian photographer Adam Oswell, won the award for Photojournalism. Advocacy groups concerned with the welfare of captive elephants view performances like these as exploitative, because they encourage unnatural behaviour and rely on fear-based training to make an elephant compliant.

Alex Mustard, based in the U.K., found a ghost pipefish hiding among the arms of a feather star. This clever photograph won the award for Natural Artistry. The fish’s bright colours signify that it has landed on the coral reef within the past 24 hours. In a day or two, its colour pattern will change, enabling it to blend in with the feather star.

Two male cichlid fish fight jaw to jaw over a snail shell in Lake Tanganyika, the oldest of the East African Great Lakes. Inside the half-buried shell is a female ready to lay eggs. The lake is home to more than 240 species of cichlid fishes, which are threatened by chemical runoff and overfishing. This image won Spanish photographer Angel Fitor the Portfolio Award.

Itsaso Vélez del Burgo, director of Lwiro Primates Rehabilitation Center in South Africa, introduces a young, traumatised chimpanzee to another orphaned survivor. The centre cares for around a hundred young chimps whose parents were killed for bushmeat, or who were rescued from the pet trade themselves. South African photographer Brent Stirton won the Photojournalist Story Award for his work at the centre.

After noticing tiny spiders all over his bedroom in Brazil, Israeli-Canadian photographer Gil Wizen looked under his bed. There, he found a Brazilian wandering spider—one of the world’s most venomous arachnids—guarding its brood. Before safely relocating it outdoors, he photographed the hand-size creature using forced perspective to make it appear even larger. For this daring image, he won the award for Urban Wildlife.

Spanish photographer Javier Lafuente shows the stark, straight line of a road slicing through the curves of a wetland landscape. The road was constructed in the 1980s to provide access to a beach, and cuts the wetland in two. The tidal wetland is home to more than a hundred species of birds, with ospreys and bee-eaters among many migratory visitors.

American photographer Jennifer Hayes captures harp seals and their newborn pups on melting sea ice in this image that won the award for “Oceans: Bigger Picture.” Every autumn, harp seals migrate south from the Arctic to their breeding grounds, delaying births until the sea ice forms. Seals depend on the ice, which means that future population numbers are likely to decline because of climate change.

Portuguese photographer João Rodrigues was surprised by a pair of courting sharp-ribbed salamanders in a flooded forest on Morocco’s Iberian Peninsula. It was João’s first chance in five years to dive in this lake, as it only fills during winters with exceptionally heavy rainfall, when underground rivers overflow. To capture this image, the winner for Amphibian and Reptile Behaviour, he had only a split second to adjust his camera settings before the amphibians swam away.

Laurent Ballesta was awarded Wildlife Photographer of the Year for this image of mating groupers.

Photographer Majed Ali from Kuwait trekked for four hours in a Ugandan national park to meet Kibande, an almost 40- year-old mountain gorilla. “The more we climbed, the hotter and more humid it got,” Ali recalls. As cool rain began to fall, Kibande remained in the open, seeming to enjoy the shower. That’s when he snapped this photograph, the winner for Animal Portrait.

Slovakian-Canadian photographer Martin Gregus used a drone to capture two female polar bears playing in shallow intertidal waters in Canada’s Hudson Bay, on a hot summer day. This image was part of a portfolio of Gregus’ work documenting these bears over three weeks that won the Rising Star Portfolio Award. Polar bears’ struggle to survive amid climate change is well documented, and Gregus wanted to capture them at leisure, in summer, to show them in a different light.

Canadian photographer Shane Kalyn won the award for Bird Behaviour for this image of a raven courtship display in British Columbia. The couple exchanged gifts—moss, twigs, and small stones—and preened and serenaded each other with soft warbling sounds to strengthen their relationship. Kalyn lay on the frozen ground using the muted light to capture the detail.

Two Svalbard reindeer battle for control of a harem in Svalbard, Norway, in this image, which won the Mammal Behavior category. Italian photographer Stefano Unterthiner followed these reindeer during the mating season. Watching the fight, he felt immersed in “the smell, the noise, the fatigue, and the pain,” he says. The reindeer clashed antlers until the dominant male, on the left, chased its rival away, securing the opportunity to breed.

In Montana, American photographer Zak Clothier set up a camera trap in bull elk remains. Later, he returned to find that grizzly bears had trashed his setup. This image, which won the award for Animals in their Environment, was the last frame captured on the camera.