20 Funny Animals, Winners Of Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards has reached its conclusion and announced the amusing winners of its 2024 contest.

Lauded as “the funniest and most popular photography competition in the world,” the Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards celebrated its 10th anniversary with a record 9,000 images entered by professional and amateur photographers from around the world.

ForbesThe Funniest Wild Animals In Photos: 20 Finalists Of Comedy Wildlife Photography AwardsBy Cecilia Rodriguez

Milko Marchetti won this year’s competition for his image of a red squirrel stuck in a tree entitled “Stuck Squirrel.” His prizes: a safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya with Alex Walker’s Serian and a unique, handmade trophy from the WonderWorkshop in Tanzania.

“As always, it was fiercely competitive, with only a few points between the top five entries, but Milko’s image was popular across the board with the judges,” the organizers explained.

“I have taken many, many photographs of squirrels, in many situations over the years in Italy,” said Marchetti, “but this one struck me as really funny because it got stuck in such a strange position.”

There were nine other category winners and special mentions to emerging wildlife photographers, including winners of the Nikon Young Photographer Award.

The Comedy Wildlife Photography competition was founded in 2015 by Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullan, both professional photographers and conservationists.

ForbesBest Ever Funny Wild Animals In Photos By Comedy Wildlife Photography AwardsBy Cecilia Rodriguez

This year’s contest benefits the Whitley Fund for Nature, a British charity that supports conservation leaders working in their home countries across the Global South. For over 30 years, it has channeled £23 million to more than 200 conservationists in 80 countries.

The next free Funny Wildlife Photography competition will start in March 2025. It is open to all novice, amateur and professional photographers and celebrates the hilarity of our natural world, transcending cultures and ages to bring a smile to every viewer.

Funny Wildlife Photography Overall Winner

The photo was taken in the “Podere Pantaleone” park in Bagnacavallo, Ravenna, Italy.

A few meters from a fixed photographic hide, curious squirrels sometimes approach this particular tree to check out a former woodpecker’s nest.

While the squirrel seems to be stuck halfway in the hole, it actually had detached the support of its hind legs to investigate the hole.

“The photo made me smile a lot at that moment and during my evenings of slideshows and nature videos that I often hold at photography meetings the audience always explodes in energetic laughter when I show it,” Marchetti said.

Category Winners

Every annoyed and overtired fish needs to de-stress by hunting for a bald eagle. This pursuit occurred in Poland’s Szczecin Lagoon.

“On my way back from my photo walk in a swamp near my town (Pantano el Sitjar, Spain), I saw someone ordering me to stop,” recalled Jose Mighel Gallego Molina. “It was my friend, the Flemish Mantis. You can imagine the faces of the other cars passing by, seeing a car with the indicators on and the door open and a madman lying on the ground with his camera in hand.”

“During a photo shoot at the pond, I discovered this frog with its head in a bubble like a tree bell,” said Eberhard Ehmke.

The whiskered tern suffered a hard, head-first crash landing on this rock. His pal watches, bemused.

“Our parents always find a way to embarrass us,” said Sarthak Ranganadhan. “I guess that’s also true in the case of spotted owlets. It was truly a funny sight to see two owlets trying to get some privacy as their little offspring stood next to them with a grin and shut eyes.”

A white-tailed eagle is ruffling its feathers. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this picture. There were more than 10 funny poses and expressions in the photo series.

“In 2022, I moved to Australia from Hong Kong to study wildlife science and my friends got me into ‘herping’ (looking for reptiles and amphibians in the wild),” explained Kingston Tam. “That’s how I ended up photographing critters. My goal for my images is to bring attention to our scaly or moist friends, showing that not only fluffy animals can be cute and beautiful.”

Highly Commended

“One ‘lazy’ morning we decided to stop by a pool with hippos in Mana Pools NP, Zimbabwe,” said Artur Stankiewicz. “My idea was to try and catch fighting hippos. Yet, they all were quite peaceful. Then I got this idea to catch this portrait with water plants decorating her head, It looks like she just got out of the hairdresser with a big smile on her face.”

This image was taken in South Georgia, and it really does show a male king penguin trying to make a move on a female who has already paired up with her mate. The body position and wing posture make the message clear: “Back off!” She clearly agrees with her initial suitor.

A young raccoon has something to tell its mother, who seems to be mulling it over.

“These rockhoppers penguins are moving into town, and this town ain’t big enough for all of them!” exclaimed Ralph Robinson. “I set up my camera a good distance from this ridge, where rockhopper penguins were returning from feeding in the southern Atlantic ocean in the Falkland Islands. I love photographing penguins after they’ve been in the water as they are cleaner. These birds look like they are ready to kick some penguin butt.

“We were on safari in Kenya and happened upon this beautiful female who was looking for a mate,” said Leslie McLeod. “A group of topi were also keeping a pretty close eye on her as she left messages for a potential partner on various trees. This shot makes me think that the cheetah is just about to shout out, ‘ready or not, here I come!’”

So, a seal walks into a bar…These two Cape Fur seals seemed to be sharing a very good joke at the Cape Cross Seal Reserve in Namibia.

This female Red-bellied Woodpecker had been investigating this Screech Owl nest for a couple of days. Perhaps it was her nest last year. The little owlet was definitely startled, and didn’t seem to know what to make of the intruder. The woodpecker moved on, and the owlet fledged with its two siblings about an hour later.

Throated lizards are found only in the Indian subcontinent, where they have evolved under the influence of changing climates. Female lizards don’t display fan, while males inflate their colorful neck pouch to attract the female in hot summer season. This female stands upright to help it handle the summer heat.

Tony “Flying Squirrel” Soprano? Nah, this flying squirrel only looks like a mafia boss.

This squirrel was having a blast.

All Categories and Highly Commended Winners of the funny Comedy Wildlife Photography awards can be seen in the Winners Gallery here.

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