Filed under: Travel News
Larry Lynch
The Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition always unearths an array of magical snaps.
And Larry Lynch's pic of a sinister-looking alligator, dubbed 'Warning night light', was the winner of the 2012 best animal portrait of the year category.
One evening, while walking along the riverbed of the Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, Florida, USA, Larry came across a group of alligators. It was the dry season, and they had been gorging on fish trapped in the pools left behind as the water receded from the river.
One big alligator had clearly eaten its fill. Larry said: 'It wasn't going anywhere in a hurry. So I set my tripod and camera up about seven metres in front of him and focused on his eyes."
Just after sunset, Larry set his flash on the lowest setting to give just a tiny bit of light, enough to catch the eyeshine in the alligator's eyes. Like cats, an alligator has a tapetum lucidum at the back of each eye - a structure that reflects light back into the photoreceptor cells to make the most of low light.
The colour of eyeshine differs from species to species. In alligators, it glows red - one good way to locate alligators on a dark night. The greater the distance between its eyes, the longer the reptile, in this case, very long.
The ultimate picture created captured a majestic yet sinister image of the formidable predator.
Now in its 48th year, the Natural History Museum-based competition attracted more than 48,000 entries from 98 countries, with Paul Nicklen's 'Bubble-jetting emperors' - a spectacular image of the chaotic underwater world of emperor penguins at the edge of the Ross Sea, Antarctica - claiming the overall title of Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Keen photographer? Entries for the 2013 competition opened on 7 January and close on 25 February 2013. Visit www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto for more information.
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Photography competition produces world's BEST wildlife pics
See some amazing wildlife pics from British photographers here:
Breathtaking British wildlife photographs
- A common blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) photographed at Tamar Lake in Cornwall<p> Did you know? The male has a blue abdomen with black spots, while the female has a yellow or bluish abdomen with dark markings.</p>
![A common blue damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) photographed at Tamar Lake in Cornwall]()
- A puffin (Fratercula arctica) swimming underwater in the Farne Islands, Northumberland<p> Did you know? The best place to spot puffins is at a breeding colony. You can see them at the RSPB's Bempton Cliffs (North Yorkshire) and South Stack (Anglesey) reserves, plus the Farne Islands (Northumberland), the Isle of May (off the Fife coast) and the Shetland and Orkney Islands.</p>
![A puffin (Fratercula arctica) swimming underwater in the Farne Islands, Northumberland]()
- A common seal (Phoca vitulina) pup resting on a sandbank during a sandstorm in Donna Nook, Lincolnshire<p> Did you know? Common seals eat around three to five kilograms of food per day and have a varied diet of sandeel, cod, sprat, octopus and squid.</p>
![A common seal (Phoca vitulina) pup resting on a sandbank during a sandstorm in Donna Nook, Lincolnshire]()
- A hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) adult female diving to its nest site at Glen Tanar Estate in Grampian, Scotland<p> Did you know? The Orkney population of hen harrier is polygynous and males sometimes simultaneously mate to multiple females.</p>
![A hen harrier (Circus cyaneus) adult female diving to its nest site at Glen Tanar Estate in Grampian, Scotland]()
- A basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) feeding on plankton in the surface waters around the island of Coll, Inner Hebrides<p> Did you know? The basking shark is the second biggest fish after the whale shark and is not the fastest of swimmers, travelling at around three miles per hour.</p>
![A basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) feeding on plankton in the surface waters around the island of Coll, Inner Hebrides]()
- A red deer (Cervus elaphus) stag thrashing bracken during rutting season in Bushy Park, London<p> Did you know? The red deer is Britain's largest land mammal and the size of a stag's antlers is related to the quality of its diet. Stags living in forests have larger antlers than those grazing on moorland.</p>
![A red deer (Cervus elaphus) stag thrashing bracken during rutting season in Bushy Park, London]()
- An old male grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) with its mouth wide open showing worn teeth in Lundy Island, Bristol Channel<p> Did you know? Its scientific name Halichoerus grypus means 'hooked-nosed sea pig'. Its name grey seal can be misleading as the animals vary in colour, from black to cream.</p>
![An old male grey seal (Halichoerus grypus) with its mouth wide open showing worn teeth in Lundy Island, Bristol Channel]()
- A black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) taking of from a tidal pool in Snettisham RSPB reserve, Norfolk<p> Did you know? In summer black-tailed godwits have bright orangey-brown chests and belliers but change to a more greyish-brown in winter.</p>
![A black-tailed godwit (Limosa limosa) taking of from a tidal pool in Snettisham RSPB reserve, Norfolk]()
- A red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) jumping while holding a nut in its mouth in the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland<p> Did you know? It is believed the red squirrel's long tail helps keep its balance and steer when it is jumping from tree to tree, and may also keep it warm while it sleeps.</p>
![A red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) jumping while holding a nut in its mouth in the Cairngorms National Park, Scotland]()
