Igor Shpilenok works in the reserve at Kamchatka, Russia. Igor is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and a winner of the 2006 BBC Wildlife Photographer Competition. Igor’s work has been published in numerous international and Russian magazines, including Smithsonian, National Wildlife, Geo, and BBC Wildlife.

“How does a bear behave when encounter a human? In most cases he runs away. But before running he almost always would rise to stand on his rear feet. And this behavior does not indicate the attack, as many people think...” – Igor Shpilenok. (Photo by Igor Shpilenok via Wildlife Photo Russia)

A golden lion tamarin monkey holds its newly born baby at a zoo in Jerusalem, Thursday, March 22, 2018. Golden lion tamarins are among the rarest animals in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund. It is listed as endangered according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (Photo by Sebastian Scheiner/AP Photo)

Wildlife agency rangers rescue a Malayan tapir, an endangered species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, after it fell into a villager's fish pond in Pekanbaru, Riau on April 20, 2021. (Photo by Wahyudi/AFP Photo)

It doesn’t make for the most flattering photoshoot, but there is a reason these zebras at Lewa wildlife conservancy in Kenya in the second decade of August 2025 are stood head to tail: they use their tails to swat flies from each others’ faces. (Photo by Andrew Campbell/Solent News & Photo Agency)

Wildlife category, open shortlist. “Buffaloes and stars”. This picture, taken at Zimanga game reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, used an in-camera multiple exposure, with the first lit for the buffaloes and the second focused on the stars. (Photo and caption by Andreas Hemb/2017 Sony World Photography Awards)

A leopard skin burns as Indian officials and activists burn wildlife contraband including tiger and leopard skins, and bones as part of a campaign to save the tiger in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, July 30, 2013. Despite conservation efforts, tiger numbers in India have declined due to rampant poaching of the cats for their valuable pelts and body parts that are highly prized in traditional Chinese medicine. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo)

Rare images of wild tigers in Bhutan, captured by camera traps, show tigers and other animals using high-altitude wildlife corridors which are lifelines to isolated tiger populations and critical to genetic diversity, conservation and growth. Here: A wild Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) captured on a camera trap in corridor eight at an altitude of 3,540 metres in Trongsa, Bhutan. (Photo by Emmanuel Rondeau/WWF UK/The Guardian)

Cows belonging to Samburu tribesmen walk around the carcass of an elephant killed by armed cattle herders in Mugui Conservancy, Kenya February 11, 2017. Kenya has declared the ongoing drought affecting many parts of the country a national disaster, calling for aid to counter the situation which is posing a major risk to people, livestock and wildlife. (Photo by Goran Tomasevic/Reuters)