Winner 2020, Animals in their Environment, GRAND TITLE WINNERWith an expression of sheer ecstasy, a tigress hugs an ancient Manchurian fir, rubbing her cheek against bark to leave secretions from her scent glands. She is an Amur, or Siberian, tiger, here in the Land of the Leopard National Park, in the Russian Far East.
The race now regarded as the same subspecies as the Bengal tiger is found only in this region, with a small number surviving over the border in China and possibly a few in North Korea. Hunted almost to extinction in the past century,
the population is still threatened by poaching and logging, which also impacts their prey mostly deer and wild boar, which are also hunted. But recent (unpublished) camera-trap surveys indicate that greater protection may have resulted in a population of possibly 500600 an increase that it is hoped a future formal census may confirm. Low prey densities mean that tiger territories are huge. Sergey knew his chances were slim but was determined to take a picture of the totem animal of his Siberian homeland. Scouring the forest for signs, focusing on trees along regular routes where tigers might have left messages scent, hairs, urine or scratch marks he installed his first proper camera trap in January 2019, opposite this grand fir. But it was not until November that he achieved the picture he had planned for, of a magnificent tigress in her Siberian forest environment.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London
Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is on at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, from Nov. 21 to May. 2 ‘ width=’800′ src=’https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.5147103.1602861125!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg’ />read more
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