Snake Surprise
Christian Ziegler, Germany, 2004
A cat-eyed snake in Panama expects a nice tadpole dinner, but instead they slip from his mouth, hatching prematurely and dropping into the water below.
Sunrise
Performance
Tim Laman, USA, 2014
Good things come to those who wait: Laman spent years searching for the best rainforest location, and after days in a treetop perch on Wokam Island, Indonesia, got this image of a bird of paradise.
It started life in 1965 in a magazine called Animals. Then there were just 361 entries. Sixty years on, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is one of the most prestigious contests of its ilk, attracting more than 45,000 entries annually from both amateurs and professionals alike.