This year’s stunning images vying for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice award offer unusual and fascinating peeks at the natural world. Stare into the eyes of a tree frog preparing to sing, admire the acrobatic dives of a territorial bird and get a front-row seat to a skirmish between a porcupine and a very determined honey badger.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest, developed and produced by the Natural History Museum in London, is considered the most esteemed competition of its kind—that’s why it’s been nicknamed the “Oscars of wildlife photography.” For 60 years running, its jury of experts has picked the most stunning shots to win and earn accolades.

But for one prize, the honor of judging goes to the public: Until January 29, a selection of 25 images are being put to a vote for the People’s Choice award.

Opening up the judging is a way of “inspiring everyone to connect with the natural world,” Douglas Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum in London, says in a statement.

This year, the contest began with a pool of 59,228 entries representing 117 countries and territories. The museum announced its overall winners and highly commended images in the fall. These photographs considered for the People’s Choice award are a newly released set, featuring peaceful animal moments, awe-inspiring behaviors and urgent needs for conservation.

Take a look at the finalists here, then cast your vote at the online gallery. The museum will announce the winner and the four runners-up on February 5.

Until then, here are the 25 breathtaking images in contention:

Annoying Neighbour by Bence Máté

A brilliant blue European roller in Hungary’s Kiskunság National Park appears frozen upside-down in mid-air, performing dramatic dives and rolls true to its name. The bird’s mating display consists of similar airborne acrobatics.

The species has only a short mating season, and the male bird intends to take advantage of it—he “makes a sport of annoying other birds that stray into its breeding area,” according to a statement accompanying the shot. He might ambush the other creature and chase it down at a high speed.

In this case, a little owl was the unlucky target of the roller’s ire. Both species have similar nesting and feeding needs, which sometimes leads them to breed near each other. But, sitting calmly on the branch, the raptor looks unaffected by the roller’s aerial scare tactics.

Hungarian photographer Bence Máté spent 27 days watching from a hide before capturing this shot.

Curious Connection by Nora Milligan

The call of a chimp rang out through Gabon’s Loango National Park. While on a guided trek through the forest, American photographer Nora Milligan and her group paused, listening. A family of chimpanzees, known to researchers as the Rekambo group, emerged from the brush and started to climb the nearby trees.

“This particular chimp paused, his curiosity piqued, and sat still long enough to observe me in return. I knew we had made a true connection when he craned his neck forward and widened his eyes to get a better look at me,” Milligan writes on Instagram. “I hope my image can play some small part to inspire others to seek this same connection and care for all living beings on Earth.”

Edge of Night by Jess Findlay

In Vancouver, Canada, fields surround an old barn that’s frequented by a barn owl. Looking at the derelict building, Canadian photographer Jess Findlay imagined the white bird flying out of the hayloft—but it took a lot to make that visualized shot a reality.

The photographer set up an invisible beam that would register when the owl flew from the barn and trigger a flash. He programmed his camera with a slow shutter speed to collect ambient glow and illuminate the clouds.

“As often is the case, it proved to be an exercise in patience and problem solving as issues with gear and batteries arose, albeit a very good learning experience,” Findlay wrote on Instagram in 2019.

With his camera at the ready, he waited ten nights for this shot, paying attention to the bird’s habits. On the final evening, the barn owl made its anticipated flight, appearing like a ghost in the darkness.

Icy Repose by Sue Flood

A Weddell seal reclines on an ice floe in Neko Harbor, an inlet on the Antarctic Peninsula. Photographer Sue Flood of the United Kingdom watched the mammal from a rigid inflatable boat, where she used a long lens to zoom in for this shot without causing a disruption.

“It’s the quiet simplicity of this scene that speaks to me the most,” Flood writes on Instagram. “I hope this image inspires people to reflect on the beauty of these remote landscapes and the wildlife that depends on them.”

Weddell seals are chatty mammals with a range farther south than any other seal on the planet. They spend lots of time hunting underwater, maintaining breathing holes in the ice. But they’ll climb onto ice floes to rest and breed.

Snuffling Sengi by Piotr Naskrecki

At dawn and dusk, the rarely seen four-toed sengi emerges to feast on insects. The elusive species, seen here in Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, might look like a rodent—but it’s actually more closely related to elephants. Its other name, the four-toed elephant shrew, refers to its trunk-like snout.

Because sengis are skittish, Polish photographer Piotr Naskrecki didn’t want to scare them away—so, rather than lying on the ground to capture this shot, he set up a remote camera. For this method, he had to somewhat anticipate where and when the mammals would forage.

Luckily, Naskrecki’s experience had taught him that sengis are “creatures of habit,” he wrote on Instagram last March. “I have been tracking and photographing them for a while and now I know not only where they are going to forage but also at exactly what time.”

He watched this individual for several weeks and learned it followed the same trails each day, allowing him to predict where it would appear while foraging for beetles.

Wolf Pack by Arvind Ramamurthy

Not far from farming fields in Bhigwan, India, a pack of five wolves pauses amid play, each one staring into the camera. Indian photographer Arvind Ramamurthy captured the shot, which he calls a “unique natural history moment,” in a video posted to Instagram. But it also tells a larger story, he adds.

“As their native habitat of grasslands are depleting, more and more wolves are moving into agricultural spaces,” Ramamurthy says in the video. “And that brings them into direct conflict with us humans.”

Farmers don’t often like sharing space with the animals, which might chew on irrigation pipes or smash crops while playing in the fields. When he later came back to this site to find the pack again, Ramamurthy was told that a farmer had chased the wolves away.

But all hope isn’t lost for the species: “Indian wolves are hardy animals,” per a statement. “With better grassland management and protection, they could make a strong comeback.”

Whiteout by Michel d’Oultremont

Just barely visible against the white backdrop of snow, a stoat sits up on its hind legs and observes its territory. Having seen stoats before in Switzerland, Belgian photographer Michel d'Oultremont wanted to capture an image of one in his own country. And importantly, he wanted to highlight how the ermines—relatives of ferrets and weasels—can blend into the snow.

Like the stoat, the photographer, too, was camouflaged—he took this shot from beneath a white camo net, with only the camera’s lens sticking out.

Earth and Sky by Francisco Negroni

Villarrica, one of Chile’s most active volcanoes, last erupted in 2015. But it still emits puffs of smoke and lava. Here, Chilean photographer Francisco Negroni captured the peak with a lava-red glow.

The volcano’s light illuminates a double lenticular cloud, or a UFO-like cloud formation created when a mountain disturbs air flow and creates standing waves above it. To get this shot, Negroni spent ten nights near the volcano.

Visiting the site is “quite an adventure—never knowing what the volcano might surprise you with,” Negroni says in a statement.

Spiked by David Northall

Honey badgers are known for being bold and fearless hunters, pursuing prey that’s many times their size. But sometimes, this gutsiness can get them into sticky situations—like with this embattled badger that tried to take on a porcupine.

Photographer David Northall of the United Kingdom watched as the intrepid hunter grabbed the cape porcupine’s back right leg. But this earned the honey badger a face full of quills as the porcupine backed into the predator in defense. Undeterred, the badger returned a short time later, still stuck with quills but determined to get its meal.

In the end, the honey badger’s efforts were rewarded, and it came out the victor.

Slap Shot by Savannah Rose

Upon spotting an unknown newcomer in its habitat, a North American beaver will lift its tail and bring it cracking down onto the surface of a pond, emitting a dull slapping noise that warns its family of the possible danger nearby. Photographer Savannah Rose of the United States spent years trying to document this behavior, which spans only a fraction of a second. But to capture every component of this shot—the beaver’s head elevated, tail poised for a strike, water droplets suspended in the air—takes a lot of patience and dedication.

The tail-slapping beaver, photographed in Jackson, Wyoming, was “one of my favorite subjects I’ve ever encountered,” Rose writes on Instagram.

Though the slap is an alarm call, “beavers usually relax quickly after realizing that the newcomer doesn’t pose a threat,” according to a statement.

Togetherness by Ivan Ivanek

On Vietnam’s Sơn Trà peninsula, photographer Ivan Ivanek of the Czech Republic found these two red-shanked douc langurs mating in the forest. The act was “unexpectedly gradual and graceful,” compared to other monkey species in his experience, per a statement.

Red-shanked douc langurs are critically endangered and found only in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Habitat destruction and the illegal pet trade have diminished their numbers in the wild. It took Ivanek days of searching for signs of the species before he came across a small group, including this pictured pair.

Fallen from the Sky by Carlo D’Aurizio

When Italian photographer Carlo D'Aurizio came upon this stream in Italy’s Majella National Park, he expected to see butterflies and dragonflies fluttering around the water. Instead, he found insect bodies floating, with no explanation as to what had happened to them.

It was a summer morning, but the weather hadn’t been hot enough to cause a mass die-off. The reason for this “sad collage” remains a mystery, but it created a still life trapped in the water’s surface tension.

A Good Scratch by Mark Williams

In shallow waters, a beluga whale curls up to exfoliate its skin against the bottom of a river in the Northwest Passage of the Canadian Arctic. “Making eye contact with the elusive and marvelous beluga is a moment I will not forget in a while,” photographer Mark Williams of the U.K. and Canada wrote on Instagram last year.

Known for being chatty, beluga whales have earned the nickname “canaries of the sea.” The pale-colored, social mammals move in pods and emit chirps, whistles, clicks and squeals that Williams thought were “otherworldly.”

However, like many Arctic species, belugas are threatened by climate change. “Their environment is changing quicker than evolutionary adaptation takes place,” the photographer added on Instagram. Killer whales can’t break through sea ice to create breathing holes, so belugas, seals and other creatures use icy areas as safe havens where they can avoid orca predators. But as temperatures rise, melting sea ice is allowing orcas to access new regions that would have been off-limits before, adding more stress to prey species.

Forest of Dreams by Samuel Bloch

As it sits quietly in a verdant green forest, this northern giant petrel is still and serene—the only hint to its predatory ways is its massive, hooked beak. By featuring the bird with this composition, French photographer Samuel Bloch subverts the typical expectation of how the species spends its time.

“Giant petrels are known as sinister predators and scavengers, they are usually pictured prowling around a penguin colony, trying to snatch chicks away from their parents,” Bloch writes on Instagram. “Here, the petrel is peacefully sitting on the edge of a lush rātā forest, framed by stunted growth born in the harsh, windy climate of the Subantarctic Islands.”

Bloch captured the image quickly, then left the area to avoid disturbing the animal. Like many of New Zealand’s native birds, giant petrels face several threats. The introduction of non-native predators to the islands, such as rodents, cats and pigs, has decimated countless avian populations.

However, on Enderby Island, where Bloch sighted this petrel, invasive creatures were wiped out by 1994, “transforming the island back into the exuberant haven it should be,” he writes on Instagram. Other islands, the photographer hopes, will soon be restored next.

Unsold by Jose Fragozo

Cheetahs get roped into the illegal wildlife trade in the Somali Region of Ethiopia, often when farmers capture and sell them, claiming the animals had been a threat to their business, according to a statement. Not all cubs sell, however, and some are killed, since their parts, especially bones, are valuable in Asian markets, such as for bone soup.

Photographer Jose Fragozo of Portugal captured this shot during a rescue operation, which began after authorities got an anonymous tip. This cheetah cub had been taken from the wild and transported via camel to the northern coast of Somaliland. Though the young cat began chirping for its mother, the rescue was ultimately successful, acquiring this cub and bringing it to a safe place.

“An important part of Wildlife Photographer of the Year is highlighting powerful and sometimes challenging stories about the natural world, as well as the effects of human impact on the planet,” the Wildlife Photographer of the Year account writes on Instagram. “We hope that by creating more awareness of the challenges faced by wildlife globally, we can inspire change and create advocates for our natural world.”

Scanning the Realm by Aaron Baggenstos

Standing on an outcrop, a puma looks out over Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. A local conservation movement created that park, as more people are rallying for the protection of pumas.

The wild cats have come into conflict with sheep farmers, or gauchos, who sometimes shoot the pumas to protect their sheep. But a recent program introduced sheepdogs, which guard the flocks from the predators and direct the cats to hunt their natural prey, reducing interactions with the gauchos.

Likewise, the creation of the national park has brought more tourists to the area for its natural landscapes and wildlife. Now, the gauchos see pumas in a more positive light, because they help bring in more income through tourism.

“There’s a revolution happening on how humans relate to and think about the animal puma,” American photographer Aaron Baggenstos says in a video on Instagram. “And there’s some very heroic Chilean people who are leading this path to sustainable ecotourism.”

The Brave Gecko by Willie Burger van Schalkwyk

A giant ground gecko squares up in an unevenly matched fight against a southern pale chanting goshawk in South Africa’s Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park.

South African photographer Willie Burger van Schalkwyk watched the battle, which showcases a common hunting technique of the hawk: walking or running on the ground to chase down its prey.

Against the massive bird, the reptile’s odds of survival were essentially zero. But the photographer was “impressed by the gecko’s bravery,” per a statement—the doomed creature stood and faced the goshawk rather than just trying to run away.

No Access by Ian Wood

In St Leonards-on-Sea, England, residents were leaving food scraps outside for the neighborhood foxes. This badger, likely also drawn in by the promise of a snack, was on the prowl.

Photographer Ian Wood of the United Kingdom noticed the Eurasian badger aptly walking in front of a wall with badger graffiti. Envisioning the image that the pairing could create, he set up a small hide and waited with his camera for the badger to return.

As the creature ambled past, he snapped the shot, showing the badger seemingly looking at its own image on the wall.

The Arrival by Brad Leue

Floodwaters from northern Queensland had traveled across the landscape for months, covering more than 1,000 miles on their march toward South Australia. From a helicopter, Australian photographer Brad Leue watched the waters surge toward Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, the nation’s largest inland lake and among the biggest salt lakes in the world.

“It is quite a surreal experience hearing the dry earth crack and pop as water brings life back to the parched land,” Leue writes on Instagram. “A passing sand storm and rain dump made the scene dramatic and added further detail to an already impressive display.”

As the waters come into the desert, they bring new life to the native animals and plants.

Aspen Shadows by Devon Pradhuman

Four grey wolves walk single file through a snowy Yellowstone National Park, dotting a nearly barren landscape. In this composition, the mammals are joined only by a grouping of aspen trees, leafless against the winter ground.

American photographer Devon Pradhuman watched from a distance as the wolves approached the trees, followed the rest of the tree line and disappeared over a hillside on the hunt for their next meal.

Evening Song by Christian Brinkmann

Eurasian blackbirds are a common sight, but German photographer Christian Brinkmann wanted to capture one in an artistic, unusual way.

In Münster, a popular fair called the Send had colored lights and party music playing near a castle. This bird perched nearby, singing with its companions. Brinkmann lined up the silhouette of the blackbird with the fair’s illumination, composing a unique look at the species.

Sneak Attack by Erlend Haarberg

Norwegian photographer Erlend Haarberg spotted a playful polar bear cub on the Svalbard archipelago. Its mother had brought her two cubs to a walrus carcass on the shore, but this young bear had other ideas: Straying a bit from its family, the cub dove into the water, playing with seaweed and kelp.

After catching and eating a sculpin, the polar bear tried hunting northern fulmars—seabirds that look like gulls—that had been sitting on the surface of the water. The youngster would approach from below, submerged, then pop up and try to catch them by surprise. Despite a great show of effort, the cub missed every attempt.

“Even if there was no successful catch this time, it was certainly a good lesson on the day he must stand on his own feet to survive,” writes the photographer on Instagram.

Meeting in the Marsh by Michael Forsberg

Still the rarest cranes on Earth, whooping cranes had almost disappeared from the face of the planet in the 1940s, when just 20 individual birds were left. A massive human effort to restore their habitat, breed individuals in captivity and teach the birds how to migrate using ultralight aircraft to guide them has rebuilt the battered population—now, roughly 600 whooping cranes fly in the wild.

In this scene captured by American photographer Michael Forsberg, a biologist—disguised as one of the tall birds—slowly approaches a whooping crane. Quickly, the scientist checked the creature’s health and switched out a broken tracker. This population of cranes in Louisiana is non-migratory and was reintroduced in the state’s Bayou Country in 2011.

“Today, whooping cranes are a story of hope with more than 800 birds in wild and captive populations, thanks to generations of dedicated conservationists, innovative science and the resiliency of the birds themselves,” the photographer writes on Instagram. “Now, their future rests squarely in our hands.”

Drifting Dinner by Noam Kortler

A decorator crab is true to its name, using a clever strategy for camouflage. The crustaceans seek out pieces of algae and tiny animals, then affix them to hook-like bristles on their shells.

For this crab, the decorations of choice are hydroids, or small animals related to jellyfish. These creatures can sting other animals, giving the crab a protective and fierce designer jacket.

Israeli photographer Noam Kortler found this underwater scene off the coast of Komodo Island, Indonesia. The decorator crab, clad in hydroids, has stepped onto a sea squirt as if it were a pedestal, its arms outstretched to grab passing plankton from the water for a meal.

With the flash used by the photographer, the crab looks to be standing at center stage, in the glow of a spotlight.

Concert in the Forest by Vincent Premel

When the first rain appears in French Guiana after a long, dry period, tree frogs emerge en masse—they descend from the forest canopy and crawl out from underground. The water fills ponds, providing relief for wildlife and a prime setting for amphibian breeding. With dozens of frog species involved, it creates a spectacle so intense that it’s known as “explosive breeding.”

“The density of individuals is hard to imagine,” according to a statement. And so is the sound—just one Surinam golden-eyed tree frog can make a call that’s audible from hundreds of yards away.

This individual, captured by French photographer and herpetologist Vincent Premel, is preparing to make one of those deafening calls. It puffs out its cheeks to unleash the noise and continue its search for a mate.