Nikolai Tolstyh takes photos of paper animal silhouettes in a natural setting. The combination is surprisingly perfect: the surroundings provide both color for the cutout and a scene to frame the animal.

Michael O’Neill won a prize in animal portraits with fry of a peacock bass hovering around their mother for protection against predators in South Florida. (Photo by Michael Patrick O'Neill/2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year)

Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus). Tanjung Puting National Park, Borneo – winner of the gold and grand prizes in the 2020 world nature photography awards. (Photo by Thomas Vijayan/World Nature Photography Awards)

Landscape second place: Denis Ferreira Netto, Brazil. “In a helicopter flight through the sea mountain range, I came across this white cloud cover, which resulted in this magnificent image that resembles the head of a dinosaur”, the photographer said. (Photo by Denis Ferreira Netto/TNC Photo Contest 2021)

“Danger in the mud” – a crocodile at Mana Pools National Park, Zimbabwe. The grand prize winner. (Photo by Jens Cullmann/World Nature Photography Awards 2022)

Nose to Nose; Human/Nature winner. “Doug Gimesy was documenting work at the Joey and Bat Sanctuary near Melbourne when he met a wombat (Vombatus ursinus) whose mother had been killed by a car. Gimesy watched as a young veterinary student bottle-fed the orphaned joey, then touched her nose to the joey’s in a tender moment of interspecies bonding”. (Photo by Doug Gimesy/BigPicture)

“Hiding In The Shadows”. This Baby Sandhill taking refuge under Moms wings while sitting on her second egg. I witnessed this baby being born earlier that day,and the next morning saw the other one hatch,what a sight to see. Photo location: Deland, Florida. (Photo and caption by Scott Helfrich/National Geographic Photo Contest)

1st Place in Wildlife: A male orangutan peers from behind a tree while crossing a river in Borneo, Indonesia. (Photo by Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan/National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year contest 2017)