A Wildlife Photographer of the Year public vote has awarded its top prize to an Austrian photographer, while two Canadian photographers earned highly commended honours for images captured in Canada.
Canadian photographers recognized
Christopher Paetkau of Canada was highly commended for a photograph of a mother polar bear and her three cubs enduring summer heat. Will Nicholls, also from Canada, received the same distinction for an image of young bear cubs play-fighting on a road silhouetted by car headlights. Both shots were taken in Canada and stood out among 24 shortlisted pictures.
The overall winner was Josef Stefan from Austria for an action shot of a young Iberian lynx tossing a rodent into the air before killing and eating it in Ciudad Real, Spain. The image secured a record 85,917 votes from members of the public.
The shortlisted images for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Nuveen People's Choice Award were chosen by a panel of judges from more than 60,000 entries to the prestigious contest, and are in addition to the 100 winning images announced in October.
Mr Stefan secured his winning shot during two weeks observing Iberian lynx from a hide at Torre de Juan Abad in Spain. The image shows the young lynx playing with the rodent in common behaviour for the species in a game lasting 20 minutes before the cat got bored and took its prey behind a bush to eat it.
Mr Stefan said the journey to take the photograph was "the pursuit of a dream that had been with me for years: encountering the Iberian lynx, one of the rarest and most endangered wild cats in the world."
The species, which was on the brink of extinction in the early 2000s, has now recovered to number more than 2,000 thanks to consistent conservation efforts, he said.
He added: "The Iberian lynx is a living symbol of hope, showing what can happen when we take responsibility, act consciously and focus our attention where it's most needed."
Exhibition in London
Dr Douglas Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, London, which runs the competition, said: "It's been wonderful to see all the votes coming in to choose the photograph set for display in our flagship exhibition here at the Natural History Museum."
Other highly commended images include a group of flamingos under power lines in Namibia, taken by Alexandre Brisson, and Kohei Nagira's shot of a sika deer carrying the interlocked severed head of a rival male that died after their battle.
The winner and four runners-up will be shown on the voting screens at the exhibition in London until it closes on July 12, while the top image will also be on the gallery wall alongside the winning images in the main competition.