29 August 2020 | New Scientist | 29Mating moves
The Australian Geographic
Nature Photographer of the Year
competition is produced by the
South Australian Museum.
Photographers Mat Beeston,
Ben Blanche, Jari Cornelis,
Kevin De Vree, Alex Kydd,
Tess Poyner
THIS tangled mass of rays was
spotted on the Ningaloo Reef,
off the coast of Western Australia.
Titled A Fever of Cownose Rays,
this photo by Alex Kydd may
be a rare look at the animals’
courting rituals, in which males
try to grasp the fins of females.
The image won the Animal
Behaviour category at the 2020
Australian Geographic Nature
Photographer of the Year
competition. Pages 30 to 31 show
other entries in the contest,
including its overall winner,
Border Fire Mt Barney.
Taken last November by Ben
Blanche, the photo depicts Mount
Barney in Queensland during the
recent bushfires that devastated
more than 180,000 square metres
of forest, killing billions of animals.
Tess Poyner was dubbed the
Junior category winner for Graceful
and Green, an image showing a
dainty green tree frog in Daintree
rainforest, Queensland. Jari
Cornelis’s Storm Dragon won
the Animal Habitat category
and it stars a central bearded
dragon in the Northern Territory.
In Bolt on Stormy Ocean
by Mat Beeston, winner of the
Landscape category, water etches
a path along this white, sandy
creek bed near Broome, Western
Australia. Enchanted Forest by
Kevin De Vree won the Botanical
category, featuring a fungal
“stairway” in Lamington
National Park, Queensland.
All the finalists are on display
at the South Australian Museum
in Adelaide until 15 November. ❚
Gege Li