Photographers snap animal antics

See the hilarious photos that capture nature at its funniest.

- 

The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have announced their 2025 finalists. About 10 years ago, wildlife photographer and awards co-founder Paul Joynson-Hicks was looking through his photos and chuckling. One showed a warthog’s bottom, and in another an eagle was looking at the camera through its back legs.

In 2015, Joynson-Hicks started the comedy wildlife awards. In the photos they pick, animals often look as though they are behaving like humans, which helps people to empathise with the creatures. Empathy is being able to understand how someone else is feeling. “To really understand animals and the issues that affect them, you need to empathise with them as fellow inhabitants of the same planet,” say the award organisers.

The 40 images shortlisted for this year's award are a riot of silly and funny images. In one of them, an elephant hides its face with its ears. Another shows a baby gorilla who seems to be doing karate. One of the photos shows a lion family looking like they have been forced to smile for the camera, with silly toothy grins. There is also a squirrel sporting a crazy hairdo and a bird that looks lost because a massive bunch of grass has blown across its head.

As well as individual images, the finalists include collections (including a monkey picking its nose and eating it) and lots of videos. The overall winner will receive a trophy and a week-long safari in Kenya. The junior winner (16 years old and under) gets a high-tech camera. The winners will be announced on 9 December, and we will post the winning image on our Facebook page (ask an adult to check it with you).