Hadrien Lalagüe's Image

Hadrien Lalagüe (France) is rewarded for his patience with a perfect alignment of grey-winged trumpeters watching a boa slither past.

Hadrien set up his camera trap by a track in the rainforest surrounding the Guiana Space Center, framing the scene with liana-draped buttress roots to one side. He then spent the next six months maintaining the camera kit against high humidity, plastic-munching ants and damage by poachers. The reward - this image of an audience of grey-winged trumpeters standing motionless as danger slithers by.

Melissa Groo, Wildlife Photographer and Competition Judge comments, ‘we saw a lot of camera trap images in the submissions this year. Many were beautiful portraits, well composed and artfully lit, however, none of them arrested us like this one. It documents an absolutely fascinating natural history moment. These are the kinds of moments that highlight the wonderful ability of camera traps to capture a moment completely devoid of human presence or distraction.’

Trumpeters - named for their loud calls - spend most of their time foraging on the forest floor, eating ripe fruits, insects and even the occasional small snake. This three-metre-long boa constrictor, however, could have easily made a meal of them.

These birds are heavily hunted elsewhere across their wide range in the Amazonian Basin because flying away is not their forte, instead they prefer to flee on foot.