In pictures: Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Clash of Eagles

The photo of a fight between two white-tailed eagles over the carcass of moose in the depths of a Polish winter secured the top prize in the Behaviour: Birds category for Antoni Kasprzak.
The competition, now in its 44th year, is run by BBC Wildlife magazine and London's Natural History Museum.

An exhibition of the best images from this year's competition opens to visitors of the Natural History Museum, London, on Friday, 31 October 2008





Deadlock

David Maitland's "deadlock" is this year's winner of the competition’s Behaviour: Other Animals category.
David said the photo was just a snapshot in the struggle between a tree-frog and cat-eyed tree-snake that lasted for hours through the night in the tropical forests of Belize.





Trouble-maker

Italian Stefano Unterthiner's photo of a mischievous Sulawesi black-crested macaque won the competition’s Animal Potraits category.
The monkey earned his nickname "trouble-maker", Stefano explained, because it was more interested in the photographer than being photographed.





The show

This photo showing a young male lion harassing a thirsty giraffe at a waterhole in Namibia has won this year's Young Photographer of the Year prize.
It was taken by teenager Catriona Parfitt during a family safari holiday in 2007.





Snowstorm leopard

A picture of an elusive snow leopard on a night-time prowl has won the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008 award.
The image was taken by Steve Winter, a photographer for National Geographic magazine, during a 13-month quest to capture a perfect image of the endangered species in its unforgiving habitat high in the mountains of central Asia.