Stuck squirrel wins comedy wildlife photography awards

CNN
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An image of a squirrel stuck in a tree has been named the overall winner of this year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, with a frog in a bubble and a bream chasing a bald eagle among the category winners.

“Stuck Squirrel” by Milko Marchetti was chosen as the winner from more than 9,000 entries, the highest number received in the competition’s 10-year history, the organizers said in a statement published Tuesday.

The team whittled the entries down to a selection of 45, which were then put to a judging panel that selected the overall winner as well as nine category winners.

Marchetti’s photo shows the moment a red squirrel is entering its hide in the trunk of a tree, with its legs at right angles to the trunk.

“I have taken many, many photographs of squirrels, in many situations over the years in Italy, but this one struck me as really funny and such a strange position, because it is that exact moment when the squirrel is detaching its back legs from the trunk to enter its hide,” Marchetti said in the statement.

“Whenever I show this image at the nature seminars at my local photography club, the audience always explode with raucous laughter, so I had to enter it!”

Stefan Maier, senior general manager of marketing at Nikon Europe, said he was thrilled to announce Marchetti’s win, adding that his image “brilliantly captures the playful and unpredictable moments that make nature so enchanting.”

Among the nine category winners were Kingston Tam, who won the Nikon Young Photographer Award with a close-up shot of a smiling frog, and 10-year old Flynn Thaitanunde-Lobb, who became the youngest ever category winner with four images of a rock star squirrel that took home first place in the Portfolio category.

The video category was won by Kevin Lohman for his footage of a red fox enjoying zoomies on the grass one frosty morning.

Last year’s winner was an image of a female western gray kangaroo striking an air guitar pose, taken by photographer Jason Moore early one morning in a wildflower field in the suburbs of Perth, Australia.