Director of the museum Doug Gurr said this year’s images show the “diversity, beauty and complexity of the natural world and humanity’s relationship to it”.<\/p>\n
The category winners and the prestigious Grand Title award will be announced on October 14.<\/p>\n
But for now, here’s a look at the highly commended images.<\/p>\n
Animals in their EnvironmentIce Edge Journey<\/p>\n
The moment fledgling emperor penguin chicks walk along the edge of an ice shelf in Antarctica. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Bertie Gregory)<\/p>\n
Animal PortraitsInside the Pack<\/p>\n
In temperatures of -35 degrees Celsius, Amit captured the elusive Arctic wolves of Ellesmere Island, Canada. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Amit Eshel)<\/p>\n
Behaviour: MammalsDeadly Lessons<\/p>\n
A group of young cheetahs after they’ve caught a Gu\u0308nther’s dik-dik in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Marina Cano)<\/p>\n
Wake-up Call<\/p>\n
A dramatic stand-off between a lion and a venomous cobra in Tanzania. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Gabriella Comi)<\/p>\n
Natural ArtistrySlime Family Portrait<\/p>\n
A line of alien-like slime moulds, each just 1-2 millimetres in diameter, on a fallen tree. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Kutub Uddin)<\/p>\n
UnderwaterJelly Smack Summer<\/p>\n
Ralph found himself in the middle of a mass or “smack” of Pacific sea nettles. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Ralph Pace)<\/p>\n
Urban WildlifeNo Place Like Home<\/p>\n
A brown-throated three-toed sloth clinging tightly to a barbed wire fence post in Costa Rica. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Emmanuel Tardy)<\/p>\n
Nature Reclaims Its Space<\/p>\n
Working in total darkness, Sitaram captured fruit bats leaving their roost in the ruins of a historical monument. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Sitaram Raul)<\/p>\n
Wetlands: The Bigger PictureFragile River of Life<\/p>\n
Longnose gars spawn in a crystal-clear Florida river. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Isaac Szabo)<\/p>\n
Clouds of Gold<\/p>\n
Clouds reflecting in salt ponds that span San Francisco Bay. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Jassen Todorov)<\/p>\n
PhotojournalismToxic Tip<\/p>\n
A solitary Asian elephant navigating a waste disposal site in Sri Lanka. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Lakshitha Karunarathna)<\/p>\n
10 years and underRutting Call<\/p>\n
A red deer stag as it gives a mighty bellow during the autumn rut in Bradgate Park, UK. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Jamie Smart)<\/p>\n
11-14 yearsEssence of Kamchatka<\/p>\n
Kesshav Vikram expresses the character of the remote wilderness of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Kesshav Vikram)<\/p>\n
A Tale of Two Coyotes<\/p>\n
Parham used the morning light to frame the amber eyes of a male coyote within the black-tipped tail of a female. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Parham Pourahmad)<\/p>\n
15-17 yearsPink Pose<\/p>\n
A greater flamingo in the act of scratching its head with one of its unmistakably long legs. (Supplied: Wildlife Photographer of the Year\/Leana Kuster)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A three-toed sloth, an inquisitive pack of wolves and a stand-off between two dangerous animals are among the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1313,449,458,459,64,63,460,134,75,2270,8212,72091,72090,72092,30351],"class_list":["post-98454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-animals","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-nature","tag-photography","tag-wildlife-photo-of-the-year-awards","tag-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year","tag-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-highly-commended","tag-wildlife-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}