Local photographer’s snap in contention for people’s choice award for Wildlife Photographer of the Year honours

A Northamptonshire photographer’s work is one of 25 images in contention for the people’s choice award at the Natural History Museum’s prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Claire Waring of Little Addington submitted a snap taken at a beach at the edge of Tangkoko Batuangus Nature Reserve, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

She said: “I was thrilled when I heard that my photo had been chosen as one of the 25 in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year ‘people’s choice’, I’m still pinching myself that it has been selected from the nearly 50,000 entries.

“It was tough following the troop of macaques through the forest and just as tough trying to keep up with them on the beach, and I was fascinated watching them at the piles of bottles.

“They easily picked out the ones containing liquid, even going so far as to use their teeth to wrench the caps off closed ones.”

The photographs were selected by the international jury and by staff at the Natural History Museum from the pool of images that made it to the final round of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Photographs are entered into the competition every year, but for the exhibition, judges can select only 100 of the 49,957 entries.

Dr Douglas Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum said: “Wildlife Photographer of the Year’s People’s Choice Award always offers an astounding selection of images, and this year is no different.

“We invite the public to join the jury and vote for their favourite; whether breath-taking beauty or a powerful story, it’s sure to be a difficult decision.”Claire’s submission shows a Celebes crested macaque drinking the contents of a plastic bottle from a pile ready for recycling.

The photo is a stark reminder of the footprint humans leave on the natural world, and how man-made items can reach the furthest corners of the planet.

Claire added: “It was encouraging to see the efforts the rangers were making to recycle the bottles, largely washed up from the sea, but devastating to know that when these piles had been removed, many more bottles would turn up for the next collection.

“It made me realise just how much waste, particularly plastic, we humans carelessly discard without any thought for where it might end up.

“I am sure that those throwing away these bottles never imagined that they would be sorted through by black macaques on a beach in Indonesia. Realistically, we still have to use plastics, but it is very easy to take our rubbish home with us and dispose of it properly. It is so irresponsible to place that task on those far away.

“It should shame us humans who think of ourselves as so superior to other life on this earth.”

The images in chosen in the people’s choice award will be showcased in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London until June 2024.

Voting online is now open here, which closes at 2pm on January 31, 2024.