Red-footed falcons are social birds, migrating in large flocks from central and eastern Europe to southern and south-western Africa. Six days watching these three resulted in a picture that reveals a subtle interaction: one female nudged the male with her talon as she flew up to make space on the branch for the other female. Exactly what the relationship was between the three birds remains a mystery. (Photo by Amir Ben-Dov/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)





A tale of two foxes. Surprising behaviour, witnessed in Wapusk national park, on Hudson Bay, Canada, in early winter. Red foxes don’t actively hunt Arctic foxes, but where the ranges of two predators overlap, there can be conflict. Though the light was poor, the snow-covered tundra provided the backdrop for the moment that the red fox paused with the smaller fox in its mouth in a grim pose. (Photo by Don Gutoski/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)





A great crested newt hangs motionless near the surface of a stream in the Netherlands. (Photo by Edwin Giesbers/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)





On a boat off the island of Lençóis on the coast of north-east Brazil, Jagot captured this shot of scarlet wings against the canvas of sand and tropical blue sky. (Photo by Jonathan Jagot/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)





Every year, a pair of barn swallows nests in the rafters of an old storehouse on this farm in Almeria, southern Spain. Tapia made a swallow-sized hole in an oil painting in a old barn and moved it over the window that the swallows entered through, capturing the moment one of the swallows swooped in with the sky behind. (Photo by Juan Tapia/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)





A Bryde’s whale rips through a swirling ball of sardines, gulping a huge mouthful in a single pass offshore of South Africa’s Transkei. (Photo by Eastern Cape/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)





On their traditional lek ground – an area of tundra on Norway’s Varanger Peninsula – territorial male ruffs in full breeding plumage show off their ruffs to each other, proclaiming ownership of their courtship areas. (Photo by Ondrej Pelanek/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)





The Bahía de Cádiz Natural Park on the coast of Andalucia, Spain, is a mosaic of marshes, reedbeds, sand dunes and beaches, which attracts great numbers of birds, and in spring it is an important migration stopping-off point. (Photo by Pere Soler/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)





A snatched glimpse or a movement in the shadows is how most people see an urban fox lurks in a back garden in Surrey, England. This shot conveys a sense of living in the shadows. (Photo by Richard Peters/2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year)