American Tim Laman wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016

The winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition are revealed today at a ceremony at the Natural History Museum, London.

American photographer Tim Laman won Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 for his image, Entwined lives. It frames a critically endangered Bornean orangutan above the Indonesian rainforest.

Beating almost 50,000 entries from 95 countries, Tim's image will be on show with 99 other shots selected by an international panel of judges at the fifty-second Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. It opens at the Natural History Museum on 21 October 2016 before touring across the UK and internationally to locations such as Spain, Canada, the USA, Germany and Macau.

Tim spent three days rope-climbing the 30 metre tall tree to set several GoPro cameras that he could trigger remotely. This captured the orangutan's face from above within a wide-angle perspective of the forest below.

Wild orangutans face a crisis of habitat loss due to agriculture and logging. Combined with increased poaching for the illegal pet trade the species' future seems bleak.

'Protecting their remaining habitat is critical for orangutans to survive. If we want to preserve a great ape that retains its vast culturally transmitted knowledge of how to survive in the rainforest and the full richness of wild orangutan behaviour, then we need to protect orangutans in the wild, now,' says Tim.

Sir Michael Dixon, Director of the Natural History Museum, London, which runs the competition, comments: 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year highlights some of the big questions for society and the environment: How can we protect biodiversity? Can we learn to live in harmony with nature? The winning images touch our hearts, and challenge us to think differently about the natural world.'

Sixteen-year-old Gideon Knight from the UK won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title for his image, The Moon and the crow.

Shot near his London home it shows the twigs of a sycamore tree silhouetted against the blue dusk sky and the full Moon. This 'makes it feel almost supernatural, like something out of a fairy tale,' says Gideon.

'If an image could create a poem, it would be like this. It should certainly inspire a few lines,' says Lewis Blackwell, Chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year jury. 'The image epitomises what the judges are always looking for - a fresh observation on our natural world, delivered with artistic flair.'

The two images were selected from 16 category winners, depicting nature at its finest, from displays of rarely seen animal behaviour to exotic landscapes. The competition is judged by a panel of industry-recognised professionals. Images from professional and amateur photographers are selected for their creativity, artistry and technical complexity.

The next Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, WPY53, is open for entries from 24 October to 15 December 2016. Find out more at nhm.ac.uk/wpy

Exhibition information

Dates and times: Friday 21 October 2016 until Sunday 10 September 2017
10.00-17.50 (last admission 17.15)

Visitor enquiries: +44 (0)20 7942 5000
Admission: Adult from £12*, child and concession from £7.50*, family (up to two adults and three children) from £30*
Please see nhm.ac.uk for full pricing
Free for Members, Patrons and children under four

* These are Gift Aid prices and include an optional donation to the Museum.

Nearest tube: South Kensington
Website: nhm.ac.uk/wpy
Facebook: www.facebook.com/wildlifephotographeroftheyear
Twitter: @NHM_WPY
Instagram: NHM_WPY

South Kensington exhibition sponsor
DONG Energy (NASDAQ OMX: DENERG) is one of the leading energy groups in Northern Europe, headquartered in Denmark. Around 6,700 ambitious employees, including over 700 in the UK, are engaged in developing, constructing and operating offshore wind farms; generating power and heat from our power stations; providing energy to residential and business customers on a daily basis; and producing oil and gas. Group revenue was DKK 71bn (EUR 9.5bn) in 2015. dongenergy.co.uk

Notes to editors

Images and media contact

Download photographs for print use at https://nhm.box.com/v/WPY52winnerspress. Please contact wildpress@nhm.ac.uk for the password.

To arrange interviews with photographers or judges, please contact Zoë Stanton in the Natural History Museum Press Office.

Email: wildpress@nhm.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5156 Mob: +44 (0)7799 690151

• The acclaimed Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition showcases Earth’s most extraordinary and revelatory sights; reflecting nature’s beauty and diversity and highlighting the fragility of wildlife on our planet. After its London premiere, the exhibition embarks on a UK and international tour, to inspire millions of people across the world to appreciate and conserve the natural world. nhm.ac.uk/wpy

• Tim Laman is a field biologist and photojournalist and a past award-winner in the competition. Long-term projects include his birds-of-paradise study, using both stills and video, and documentation of orangutans in the wild, in collaboration with his wife Cheryl Knott and her Gunung Palung Orangutan Program. Tim is a National Geographic contributor, with more than 20 features to his credit, most of them on rainforest subjects. timlaman.com

• Behind the scenes footage from the orangutan project can be found on the National Geographic website

• Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio 26, edited by Rosamund Kidman-Cox, is published by the Natural History Museum on 19 October 2016, priced £25.

• Wildlife Photographer of the Year: The Masters of Nature Photography: Volume Two features portfolios from ten of the world's leading nature photographers, including Tim Laman. The book was published by the Natural History Museum on 29 September 2016, priced £30.