The winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition were revealed  last week.

A South African photographer won the top award for his stunning portrait of  African elephants in Botswana.

For the competition, one-hundred images were selected from 43,000 entries.  There were winners in 18 individual categories as well as an overall award.

Here’s a selection of some of the best images

“Essence of Elephants” — Greg du Toit of South Africa  won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for this shot of African  elephants taken at a waterhole in Botswana’s Northern Tuli Game Reserve.

“Snow moment” — Jasper Doest of the Netherlands captured  a Japanese macaque jumping on a rock in a hot spring.

“The Cauldron” — Sergey Gorshkov of Russia photographed  Plosky Tolbachik, a volcano in central Russia, from a helicopter when it erupted  last November for the first time in 36 years.

“Dive Buddy” — Luis Javier Sandoval of Mexico documented  the endangered green turtle on the beaches of the Yucatan Peninsula near  Cancún.

“The Spat” — Joe McDonald from the United States watched  a female jaguar attack a male companion near a river in Brazil.

“Sticky Situation” — Isak Pretorius from South Africa  found a lesser noddy, a bird that flies to an island in the Seychelles to breed,  entangled in the large web of a red-legged golden orb-web spiders. The female  spiders can grow to the size of a human hand.

 

“The Water Bear” — American Paul Souders took his Zodiac  boat to Hudson Bay in Canada during mid-summer and waited patiently for this  polar bear, first spotted on sea ice about 30 miles offshore, to slip into the  water.

“Lucky Pounce” — Connor Stefanison from Canada  photographed this fox seconds before it was about to pounce on a mouse, in  Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park.

“The Flight Path” — Stefanison was also recognized for  his photo of a female barred owl swooping in front of red cedar trees and ferns  in British Colombia.

 

“Mother’s Little Headful” — Udayan Rao Pawar, 14, from  India photographed a female gharial crocodile in the Chambal River while  balancing several hatchlings on her head.