by
Team Africa Geographic
Thursday, 18 May 2023
Our Photographer of the Year 2023 is now closed for submissions. Cash prizes of US$10,000 have been set aside for the winner and two runners-up. Winners and their partners will also join our CEO Simon Espley and his wife Lizz on the ultimate private safari
Judging for Photographer of the Year will take place throughout the month of May 2023, and the winners will be announced in early June 2023.
This is Gallery 3 of the Top 101. To see the other Photographer of the Year Top 101 galleries, follow the links: Gallery 1 , Gallery 2 , Gallery 4 .
Photographer of the Year is proudly brought to you by Hemmersbach Rhino Force and Mashatu Botswana .
A critically endangered Perrier’s sifaka, one of the world’s rarest lemurs, clings to a tree – its profoundly disproportionate limbs designed for arboreal life. Anjahankely, Madagascar. © Andrew Macdonald Is all of me covered? A concerned western lowland gorilla attempts to shelter from the oncoming downpour. Ndzehe Forest, Democratic Republic of the Congo. © Andy Skillen A herd of oryx climb the dunes in a desert of vast eternity. “It seemed impossible for any life to exist in this harsh landscape, but they were set on their course to a destination known only to them.” Namib Desert, Namibia. © Dewald Tromp Every year during the sardine run, millions of sardines journey up the South African coast, prompting a feeding frenzy. These bait balls are typically formed by dolphins, but in this case, the photographer reports that the ball was kept together by hundreds of black tip sharks, later joined by Cape gannets, skipjack tuna and kingfish intent on partaking in the feast. Port St. Johns, Eastern Cape, South Africa. © Geo Cloete A southern ground-hornbill revels in a dust bath. Kruger National Park, South Africa. © Ilna Booyens A herd of wildebeest gallop down precipitous banks and surge through the Mara River. Mara River, boundary of Tanzania and Kenya. © Jenny Zhao White rhinos make the dust fly. South Africa. © Kevin Dooley “Sometimes I sits and thinks. And sometimes I just sits.” Mark, the 40-year-old leader of the Nyakagezi gorilla family, enjoys some alone time in the dense bamboo forest. Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Uganda. © Michael Stavrakakis In the shadow of Mount Kenya lies one of East Africa’s most successful rhino sanctuaries. Solio Conservancy, Kenya. © Preeti John Chacko Could I interest you in a napkin? Okavango Delta, Botswana. © Tomasz Szpila A wildebeest succumbs to the teeth and claws of its four cheetah pursuers. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. © Amith Krishna Out of the darkness. A portrait of one of Laikipia’s melanistic leopards. Laikipia Wilderness Camp, Laikipia County, Kenya. © Ateeb Hussain A parent’s work is never done. A white-throated swallow feeding a beak full of dragonflies to its almost fully-grown chick. Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa. © Dustin Van Helsdingen All that glisters is not gold. A moment of peace for this young male leopard on a misty morning at Transport dam. Kruger National Park, South Africa. © Garry Mills A Natal forest tree frog peeks out from behind a leaf. Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. © Hendrik Louw Nothing looks more objectively miserable than a wet cat. The size of said cats is irrelevant. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. © Laura Dyer A dawn desert duel between two bull giraffes. Namib Desert, Namibia. © Mark Nissenbaum Standing on the shoulders (heads) of giants. A cattle egret hitches a ride. Amboseli National Park, Kenya. © Paul Joynson-Hicks The sinuous agility of Madagascar’s unique predator – the fossa. Kirindy Forest, Madagascar. © Sergey Savvi Surrounded by giants. “We spotted a pride of lions warming up in the morning sun. One lioness completely overslept the retreat of her pride as a herd of elephants came by, awaking to find herself in the middle of the herd.” Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. © Thorsten Hanewald Feeding frenzy. After some effective teamwork, social spiders (Stegodyphus sp. ) devour a garden fruit chafer (Pachnoda sinuata ). National Botanical Gardens, Harare, Zimbabwe. © Anjuli Rebelo A brown-headed parrot adorned in a smorgasbord of tasty weeping boer-bean buds.Kruger National Park, South Africa. © Joschka Voss Snatched from the jaws of defeat. An exhausted young yellow baboon fights for his life as he is repeatedly pulled under the water by a crocodile. Amazingly, the photographer reports that he later escaped – undoubtedly painful, but perhaps somewhat the wiser for his misadventure. Tsavo River, Tsavo West National Park, Kenya. © Nicolas Urlacher Groom with a view. Geladas graze peacefully against one of Africa’s most dramatic backdrops. Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia. © Turgay Uzer The first of several impending near misses for a tiny GoPro camera. An elephant’s foot is a remarkable feat of evolutionary engineering, designed to bear its share of substantial weight on five individual toes. Amboseli National Park, Kenya. © Vijayram Harinathan To comment on this story: Login (or sign up) to our app here - it's a troll-free safe place 🙂.
