The finalists for this year's Nikon Comedy Wildlife awards have been revealed, featuring a caiman wearing a wig, two brown bears laughing and a leopard doing a handstand. Winners will be announced on 8 December.
Standout finalists
Dirk Koster's image, titled 'The different one', shows three young giraffes in the Maasai Mara, Kenya, with one seemingly wearing an umbrella acacia tree like a green hairdo. Koster said nothing was staged or arranged; it was a matter of being in the right spot at the right moment.
Lee Frost's 'Nature's window' captures an azure damselfly in Stoke-on-Trent, UK, that popped its head through a leaf and gave a cheerful wave. Fabi Fregonesi's 'Did I sleep past my alarm?' features a blenny in Curaçao, captured after multiple targeted dives.
More comical encounters
Andy Rouse's 'Doris in her hat' shows an Asian water buffalo in Sri Lanka wearing a bonnet of flowers. Hannah Deitl photographed a cheeky little elephant in South Africa, while Marek Jackowski's 'Sea gangsters' depicts walruses on Moffen Island in the Svalbard archipelago giving him an Arctic inspection.
Celine Nic Oireachtaigh captured greylag goslings snuggled together at Finnamore Lakes in Ireland. Ka Chun Jacky photographed a mountain scops owl in China's Nanling national forest park, and Diego Perez's 'Sexy mantis' shows a green mantis peeking over a leaf in Camanti, Cusco, Peru.
Portfolio and other categories
Lynn Emery's 'Two birds one vision' features two little owls in Dubai's al-Qudra desert. Charles Janson's 'Bears sharing a laugh' shows two subadult male brown bears play-fighting. Heather Smith's 'Busted' captures eastern grey kangaroos in Crowdy Bay national park, Australia.
Andy Parkinson's 'Hercules, the baboon' shows an infant olive baboon appearing to hold an adult above its head in Kenya. Robert Nairn's 'Ballet dancer' features a sparrowhawk in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. Jan Wittmer photographed a goldcrest on the island of Helgoland, Germany.
Kyo Chen's 'A very pressured spadefish' shows a spadefish swimming ahead of a whale shark in Oslob, Cebu, Philippines. Eric Boren captured a polar bear contemplating an ivory gull north of Svalbard, Norway. Paolo Torre's 'Elvis' features a caiman in the Pantanal, Brazil, with floating vegetation resembling a 1950s rock'n'roll hairstyle.
Alexander Hormann's 'Runny nose' shows a female moose shaking water from her coat at Maligne Lake, Alberta, Canada. Jeremy Richards photographed African bullfrogs in South Luangwa national park, Zambia. Homi Sahana's 'The handstand' features a leopard in Samburu national reserve, Kenya. Thong Duy Vu's 'Out of water' captures a sunbird enjoying a bath in a banana blossom.
