Stunning winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition

This dynamic photograph of cactus bees scrambling to find a mate on the hot sands of a Texas ranch by Karine Aigner has won the top prize in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

The shot shows a ball of male bees, all determined to mate with the single female at the centre. Aigner spent time lying in the dirt to take the photo, using a macro lens to confront the viewer with a new perspective on insect behaviour. “The sense of movement and intensity is shown at bee-level magnification and transforms what are little cactus bees into big competitors for a single female,” said chair of the jury Rosamund Kidman Cox, announcing Aigner’s win.

Tony Wu won the underwater category with this photograph of a male Leiaster leachi sea star broadcasting sperm into the sea. The backdrop is the dark waters at the foot of an active volcano in southern Japan, which Wu says erupted shortly after he left the area. He was cramped within a tiny, enclosed bay and had only a macro lens, so had to back up to capture the sea star, which was between 40 and 45 centimetres in diameter.

Wu’s electrifying photograph spotlights the vitality of an animal that might usually be viewed as static. He says he wanted to “make the animals that don’t have natural charisma look beautiful”.

Daniel Núñez, winner in the wetlands category, used a drone to show the extent of contamination in Lake Amatitlán, Guatemala, which takes in approximately 75,000 tonnes of waste annually from Guatemala City. The verdant rainforest is juxtaposed with the green algal blooms that flourish in the presence of polluting waste.

Junji Takasago, winner in the natural artistry category, captured a surreal scene of Chilean flamingos seemingly floating within the reflected clouds in Salar de Uyuni, the world’s largest salt pan, high in the Andes. Takasago says that “nature is in harmony” in the shot, but Salar de Uyuni is also the location of one of Bolivia’s largest lithium mines, and its destructive activity threatens the habitat of these flamingos.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.