National Geographic has announced the winners of its annual photo competition, with the Grand Prize Winner Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan receiving a prize of $7,500 for his image of an orangutan in Borneo. National Geographic was once again kind enough to let us display the winning images and honorable mentions here from the four categories: Wildlife, Landscapes, Aerials, and Underwater.
Winners of the 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year Contest
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Mother's Love. Second Place, Wildlife. An adult Caribbean pink flamingo feeds a chick in Yucatán, Mexico. Both parents alternate feeding chicks, at first with a liquid baby food called "crop milk," and then with regurgitated food. #
© Alejandro Prieto / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
Face to Face in a River in Borneo. Grand Prize Winner and First Place, Wildlife. A male orangutan peers from behind a tree while crossing a river in Borneo, Indonesia. #
© Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
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Rock Pool. First Place, Aerials. In Sydney, Australia, the Pacific Ocean at high tide breaks over a natural rock pool that was enlarged in the 1930s. Avoiding the crowds at the city’s many beaches, a local swims laps. #
© Todd Kennedy / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
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In Your Face. Second Place, Underwater. Typically a shy species, a Caribbean reef shark investigates a remote-triggered camera in Cuba’s Gardens of the Queen marine-protected area. #
© Shane Gross / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
Drift. People's Choice, Underwater. A Portuguese man-of-war nears the beach on a summer morning. Thousands of these jellyfish wash up on Australia’s eastern coast every year. #
© Matthew Smith / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
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Fluorescent Anenome. First Place, Underwater. Blue-filtered strobe lights stimulate fluorescent pigments in the clear tentacles of a tube-dwelling anemone in Hood Canal, Washington. #
© Jim Obester / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
Firefall. First Place, Landscapes. Shortly before twilight in Kalapana, Hawai’i, a fragment of the cooled lava tube broke away, leaving the molten rock to fan in a fiery spray for less than half an hour before returning to a steady flow. #
© Karim Iliya / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
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Flying fish in Motion. Third Place, Underwater. Buoyed by the Gulf Stream, a flying fish arcs through the night-dark water five miles off of Palm Beach, Florida. #
© Michael O'Neill / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
Drip. Third Place, Aerials. On the flanks of Kilauea Volcano, Hawai’i, the world’s only lava ocean entry spills molten rock into the Pacific Ocean. After erupting in early 2016, the lava flow took about two months to reach the sea six miles away. #
© Greg C. / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
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Predators on a Bait Ball. Honorable Mention, Underwater. Preparing to strike, tarpon cut through a ribbon-like school of scad off the coast of Bonaire in the Caribbean Sea. #
© Jennifer O'Neil / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
Life after Life. Honorable Mention, Aerials. Migratory gulls take flight from a cedar tree being washed downstream by a glacial river in British Columbia, Canada. #
© Agathe Bernard / 2017 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year -
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