GALLERY: Amazing wildlife photos at library

Australian photographer Ofer Levy  has captured a flying fox at a moment of extreme beauty as it catches a quick ‘‘fly-by’’ drink in Parramatta Park.

The work is called Fly-by drinking.

Another Australian’s work,  The end of sharks by Paul Hilton, documents the tragic waste and cruelty of harvesting for shark fin soup.

The exhibition, which is now open, features more than 100 works from the 2012 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

For the first time, Newcastle gets to see the show at the same time it is on in Sydney.

Newcastle is the only regional city in Australia showing the exhibition.

Both Levy and Hilton were finalists in the awards.

Library public program co-ordinator Carol Edmonds said the photography exhibition was one of the institution’s most popular shows.

‘‘Photography is accessible to everyone,’’ she said.

‘‘It shows places and creatures people don’t get to see.’’

Levy chose the flying fox as a subject because of the threats it faces from humans and loss of habitat.

Hilton said he chose his image of harvested shark fins to highlight the impact of the wasteful industry on the species – millions of sharks are killed and the rest of their bodies thrown away.

Visitor numbers at the Newcastle exhibition are expected to exceed 10,000 before the show ends on August 10.

The award is regarded as one of the world’s prestigious international competitions.

The winner this year was Canadian Paul Nicklen.

The exhibition is toured in Australia by the Australian Museum and is co-owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Worldwide.

The exhibition will be on display in the library’s Lovett Gallery.

CAPTIONS:

PICTURE 1: Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Bubble-jetting emperors Paul Nicklen (Canada) Winner This was the image Paul had been so hoping to get: a sunlit mass of emperor penguins charging upwards, leaving in their wake a crisscross of bubble trails. The location was near the emperor colony at the edge of the frozen area of the Ross Sea, Antarctica. It was into the only likely exit hole that he lowered himself. He then had to wait for the return of the penguins, crops full of icefish for their chicks. Paul locked his legs under the lip of the ice so he could remain motionless, breathing through a snorkel so as not to spook the penguins when they arrived. Then it came: a blast of birds from the depths. They were so fast that, with frozen fingers, framing and focus had to be instinctive. ‘It was a fantastic sight’, says Paul, ‘as hundreds launched themselves out of the water and onto the ice above me’ .

PICTURE 2: Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Relaxation Jasper Doest (The Netherlands) Commended In winter, Japanese macaques in the Jigokudani Valley of central Japan congregate in the hot-spring pools, to stay warm and to socialise. The colder it gets in the mountains, the more of them head for the pools, as do humans. Jasper found about 30 macaques enjoying a steamy soak, their heads covered in fresh snow. ‘The warm water has a very relaxing effect on the monkeys, and most of them were asleep.’ He watched with delight as this youngster became increasingly drowsy and eventually closed its eyes. ‘It’s such an honour when an animal trusts you enough to fall asleep in front of you,’ says Jasper. ‘I used a close-up shot to capture the moment of tranquillity and to emphasise the human likeness in both face and pleasure.’

PICTURE 3: Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 The glance Jami Tarris (USA) Commended Two of the young Sulawesi black-crested macaques entered into a boisterous game with an older, stronger male, involving much ear-piercing shrieking and chasing. Though they were in high spirits, Jami had spent weeks with them and could tell that their play was becoming increasingly heated. When the playmates huddled briefly together, she snatched a close-up shot. But as she did, the older male threw her an intense and challenging look. ‘I didn’t take this lightly,’ Jami says, and she quickly withdrew to a safe distance. Moments later, the older macaque turned rough, and the younger ones scattered, screeching. The real drama is that these characterful primates are at high risk of extinction, both from poaching and forest loss on their Indonesian island home.

PICTURE 4: Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 The Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species Leaping lemur Heinrich van den Berg (South Africa) Commended Verreaux’s sifakas are found only in southern and southwestern Madagascar. They are not as endangered as many of the island’s lemurs, but their numbers are falling, mainly because of deforestation. They are most often photographed crossing open areas of ground, jumping upright, as if on springs. But when Heinrich found a group feeding in trees in the Nahampoana Reserve, what impressed him was the extraordinary way they use the technique to leap from one tree to another. ‘They spring off their back legs, then twist in the air to land perfectly on the next trunk,’ says Heinrich. The photographic conditions were ideal – the sifakas in shadow and a bright background behind – enabling him to use a slow shutter speed for the background effect of movement and a flash to freeze the leap.

PICTURE 5: Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Fly-by drinking Ofer Levy (Israel/Australia) Specially commended The grey-headed flying fox is the largest bat in Australia – and one of the most vulnerable. Once abundant, there are now only around 300,000 left. The main threats include loss of habitat, extreme-temperature events and human persecution (roosting in numbers, eating cultivated fruit and an undeserved reputation for bearing disease brings it into conflict with people). The bat is now protected throughout its range, but its future remains uncertain. Ofer spent several days in Parramatta Park in New South Wales photographing the bat’s extraordinary drinking behaviour. ‘At dusk, it swoops low over the water, skimming the surface with its belly and chest,’ he says. ‘Then, as it flies off, it licks the drops off its wet fur.’ To photograph this in daylight, Ofer had to be in the right position on a very hot day, with the sun and the wind in the right direction. 

PICTURE 6: Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 The World in Our Hands Award Ice matters Anna Henly (UK) Winner Anna was on a boat in Svalbard – an archipelago midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole – when she saw this polar bear at around four in the morning. It was October, and the bear was walking on broken-up ice floes, seemingly tentatively, not quite sure where to trust its weight. She used her fisheye lens to make the enormous animal appear diminutive and create an impression of ‘the top predator on top of the planet, with its ice world breaking up’. The symbolism, of course, is that polar bears rely almost entirely on the marine sea ice environment for their survival, and year by year, increasing temperatures are reducing the amount of ice cover and the amount of time available for the bears to hunt marine mammals. Scientists maintain that the melting of the ice will soon become a major problem for humans as well as polar bears.

PICTURE 7: Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Lion in the spotlight Joel Sartore (USA) Commended Tree-climbing is not a normal lion habit, but lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, often take to the trees in the day, probably to cool off and escape the flies. This tree held two dozing brothers. ‘It was dusk by the time the first young male woke from his nap,’ says Joel. ‘I worried about camera shake, because the light levels were next to nothing. I also worried that he wouldn’t look up so that I could see his face. He did, though, for all of five seconds, listening to a female calling in the distance.’ Joel was with Dr Ludwig Siefert, the chief biologist studying the lions in the park, who spotlit the male so it could be identified and photographed. ‘The lions are used to him and his truck and paid zero attention to us,’ says Joel. ‘But they are in trouble. Cattle herders desperate for grazing are taking their livestock into the park.

PICTURE 8: Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Frozen moment Paul Nicklen (Canada) Winner Paul was not the only mammal lying patiently in wait on the edge of the Ross Sea, Antarctica, to greet the explosion of emperor penguins. Leopard seals – measuring up to three and a half metres long – were almost certainly lurking at the edge of the ice ready to grab a meal. The penguins were therefore exiting as fast as possible. They can sky-rocket up to two metres high out of the water, landing well clear of the edge. ‘I also kept an eye out for leopard seals myself,’ says Paul. ‘I’d previously had one hit me square in the face when I was five metres from the ice edge, knocking me down and stunning me. Luckily it realised that I wasn’t a penguin and slipped back into the icy water.’ The penguins’ survival is vital to that of their two-month-old chicks, hungrily waiting some 10 kilometres away at the Cape Washington colony.

PICTURE 9:  Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012 Snatch and grab Stefan Huwiler (Switzerland) Commended Stefan hiked for five kilometres in thick snow in the Sinite Kamani National Park in Bulgaria to reach a hide known to be a golden eagle hotspot. It was one of the coldest winters in recent years, and using a vehicle was out of the question. On the second day, he spent a long while watching a golden eagle eating a carcass. ‘I was able to get some great portrait shots,’ says Stefan, ‘but what happened next took me by surprise.’ A red fox sidled up and tried to snatch the meal, but the eagle was having none of it. ‘After a short, fierce spat, the fox fled with the eagle literally hard on its heels.’ A golden eagle can kill prey even bigger than a fox, but with a carcass to defend, the eagle was almost certainly just trying to scare the fox away rather than grab it.