Hot Shots

Winning images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

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The Alley Cat - Nayan Khanolkar - Winner, Urban at night in the aarey Milk Colony in a suburb of Mumbai, leopards slip ghost-like through the maze of alleys, looking for food (especially stray dogs). The Warli people living in the area respect the big cats. Despite close encounters and occasional attacks, the cats are an accepted part of their lives. The leopard is not only the most versatile of the world’s big cats but possibly the most persecuted. With growing human-leopard conflicts elsewhere grabbing the headlines, Nayan was determined to use his pictures to show how things can be different with tolerance and planning. Positioning his flashes to mimic the alley’s usual lighting and his camera so that a passing cat would not dominate the frame, he finally – after four months – got the shot he wanted.