UK

Amateur Photographer of the Year 2014 www.amateurphotographer.co.uk

BBC Countryfile Photographic competition www.countryfile.com/subject/photographic-competition

British Wildlife Photographer of the Year  www.bwpawards.org

British Birds: the BB Bird Photograph of the Year competition http://britishbirds.co.uk/birding-resources/bird-photograph-of-the-year/

International Garden Photographer of the Year “Wildlife in the Garden” category www.igpoty.com/

The Mammal Society Photo Competition www.mammal.org.uk/photo_competition

Marwell Photographer of the Year competition www.marwell.org.uk/photocomp/

(Every two years) National Insect Week photo competition, Royal Entomological Society, http://nationalinsectweek.co.uk/competitions/insect_photography.htm

Outdoor Photographer of the Year www.opoty.co.uk/

Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition celebrates the power of photography to communicate science https://royalsociety.org/journals/photo-competition/

RSPB Photography Contest‎ “Wildpix” www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/families/children/join_in/competitions/wildpix/index.aspx

RSPCA Young Photographer Awards http://ypa.rspca.org.uk/

Society of Biology photography competition www.societyofbiology.org/get-involved/awards-and-competitions/photography-competition

Wildlife Photographer of the Year www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto

The Wildlife Trusts offer a range of local competitions www.wildlifetrusts.org/WildlifePhotography

(Occasionally) WWT Wetland Photography www.wwt.org.uk/wetland-centres/experience/photography/

Landscape Photographer of the Year http://www.take-a-view.co.uk/​

Travel Photographer of the Year http://www.tpoty.com/ 

Underwater Photographer of the Year http://www.upylondon.com/

Zoological Society London Animal Photography Prize www.zsl.org/about-us/zsl-animal-photography-prize

Wildlife Photo Contest (Will Burrard Lucas) www.wildlifephoto.com/wildlife-photography-competition

EUROPE

Asferico Photo Contest, Italy www.asferico.com/concorso/e_index.asp

GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Germany www.gdtfoto.de

World Press Photo Award, Amsterdam, the Netherlands www.worldpressphoto.org/

​MontPhoto, Spain http://montphoto.com/website/index.asp

Montier Photo Festival, France www.festiphoto-montier.org

Glanzlichter Projekt Natur + Fotografie, Germany http://www.glanzlichter.com/

Oasis Photo Contest, Italy www.oasisphotocontest.com/index.asp

Siena International Photo Awards (SIPA) https://sipacontest.com

REST OF WORLD
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Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year http://naturephotographeroftheyear.com.au/

C4 Photo Safaris http://exploremore.c4photosafaris.com/#enter

Global Arctic Awards International Photography Competition, Russia http://arcticawards.ru/en

Big Picture Natural World Photography Competition, California, USA http://bigpicturecompetition.org/

Golden Turtle international wildlife contest, Moscow http://wncontest.ru/en/about/

Kuwait Grand Photography Contest, Middle East www.kwtphotography.com​

National Geographic Traveller Photo Competition, USA
www.natgeotraveller.co.uk/photo-competition-2015/

Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards, USA www.naturesbestphotography.com

Nikon Photo Contest, Japan www.nikon-photocontest.com/en

Por el Planeta Wildlife, Nature & Conservation Photo Competition, Mexico 
https://porelplanetaphoto.com/

Sony World Photography Awards Nature & Wildlife Category www.worldphoto.org

B&H Wilderness Photo Competition www.wildernessphotocompetition.com/

Audubon Photography Awards www.audubon.org/photoawards

Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest www.smithsonianmag.com/photocontest/?no-ist 

National Wildlife Federation Photo Contest www.nwf.org/photocontest.aspx 

International Photography Awards www.photoawards.com 

International Ocean Art Photo Competition www.uwphotographyguide.com/ocean-art-underwater-photo-competition​

​Ocean Geographic Pictures of the Year Awards http://ogpicoty.ogsociety.org/
​
"Wildlife" category of the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Rashid AlMaktoum International Photography award www.hipa.ae/en/happiness-2015-2016/winners
​

Tip 21: Explore a photo library. If you know what you want to photograph, but don’t know how well it's already been covered, visit some agency websites.

Tip 22: Stick with it. Don’t assume that photographing a wildlife spectacle for one day, one week or even one month will be enough to tell its story. 

Tip 23: Is anything missing? Imagine a storyboard with all your pictures on and make sure you've covered all the key aspects of your story.

Tip 24: How to pitch. Once you have a story and some amazing new shots, you need to get to know your target publication in detail.

Tip 25: Buy the mag. Study several issues of the publication and ask yourself who it's aimed at. Identify what sort of content it prefers.

Tip 26: Look closer. Try to identify the sections that make up the magazine – features, news, reviews, masterclasses – and what their priorities are.

Tip 27: Be impressive. When it comes to your pitch, an editor will be more impressed if you can demonstrate an appreciation of their magazine’s needs.

Tip 28: Visit the magazine’s website. Look for advice on how they like to receive photo pitches and, most importantly, who to contact.

 Tip 29: Email the right person. Sections have different editors. Targeting the right one can mean a prompt reply instead of a long wait.

Tip 30: Avoid obvious mistakes. Never send your photos to a publication you’ve never even looked at. Editors aren’t stupid – they can tell.

Tip 1: Tell a story. Magazines are all about stories. Focus on one species, place or project to get the original content editors look for.

Tip 2: Surprise me! Every editor’s mantra. Don’t overlook familiar or common species, find fresh ways of portraying them.

Tip 3: Sell your work. Don't simply invite an editor to browse your entire website to see if anything catches their eye. They won't do it.

Tip 4: Know what sells. Editors are always asked what they’re looking for, but inspiration is all around. Look at books, mags, ads and online.

Tip 5: Be different. Don’t follow the hoards to photograph polar bears or tigers. It’s been done hundreds of times and competition is fierce.

Tip 6: Be emotional. Take images of things that mean something to you. 

Tip 7: Take heart. It’s not only professionals who get published. Editors are constantly looking for new, fresh and inventive photography.

Tip 8: Be committed. You may need to follow your subject for a year (or more) to capture all its key behaviour and tell its story properly.

Tip 9: Be inspired (but don’t copy). Study the sort of images that win competitions, sell as prints, turn up in calendars and are used in campaigns. 

Tip 10: Stories are made of words, not just photos. If you're not a writer, suggest an expert, researcher or writer who can tell your story.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes sees genetically enhanced super-apes, led by Caesar the chimp, battle a band of beleaguered humans for control of the planet. The outcome would seem inevitable.

But, in hand-to-hand combat between prime specimens of both species, who would win: human or chimp? I looked at each combatant’s strengths…

ALPHA CHIMP
Height: 5'4 standing upright
Weight: 140lbs

Weapon 1: Strength
Alpha Chimp is terrifyingly strong. His species has been measured as having five times the arm strength of a human male, due to more powerful muscles and better leverage. Primed by his arboreal lifestyle, Alpha Chimp has the strength to twist his adversary’s arm off.

Weapon 2: Teeth and claws
Alpha Chimp doesn’t need a gun – he has long canines and a powerful bite. He also has proportionately longer arms than Alpha Man – they are half as long as his body – giving him dangerous reach with his sharp claws.

Weapon 3: Speed
Alpha Chimp is an explosive sprinter, climber and fighter. He can jump higher and move faster than Alpha Man. He has less control over his muscles, so when it comes to action it’s all-or-nothing. But his extra power and speed come at a price – stamina is sacrificed. 

Weapon 4: Ferocity
Alpha Chimp is not messing around – he’s in it to win it. Aggression is a common part of his daily life and his relentless forward assault is hard to defend against. He doesn’t hold back and aims for Alpha Man’s face, hands, feet and testicles. He’s also unpredictable, which makes him even more dangerous.

Weapon 5: Strong bones
Alpha Chimp’s skull is thicker and his bones more dense than those of his human opponent, making it hard to knock him out. He’s not known as the robust chimpanzee for nothing!

ALPHA MAN
Height: 6'5
Weight: 300lbs

Weapon 1: Intelligence
With his superior intellect, Alpha Man has the edge – but not as much of an advantage as you might think. Chimps also have large, complex brains, they can plan ahead and are skilled at coordinating monkey hunts. Some are also experienced warmongers, systematically picking off members of neighbouring groups one-by-one.

Weapon 2: Control
Though humans are known to perform extraordinary feats of strength in life-and-death situations, Alpha Man cannot hope to match his opponent’s sheer power. However his nervous system gives him more control over his muscles, enabling him to execute more subtle moves.

Weapon 3: Training
Alpha Man is trained in hand-to-hand combat techniques – and he’s going to need every tactic at his disposal. He cannot risk getting too close to his opponent, due to the chimp’s strength and long reach, so he will have to try to attack his extremities eg hands and feet and wear him down til exhaustion takes the edge off his attack.

Weapon 4: Deception
Alpha Man has various tricks up his sleeve to distract and confuse his adversary. Throwing objects, kicking sand or dirt, head-butting or a sudden and powerful yell could all give him a momentary advantage over his primate opponent.

Weapon 5: Swimming
Alpha Man can swim, a talent that evades our closest cousins. This secret weapon may come in useful if there’s water nearby.

And the winner is…
Yes, that’s right. Physically, Alpha Chimp is a superhero compared to even the strongest human and would inevitably annihilate Alpha Man in hand-to-hand combat. But Alpha Chimp would need to have been captive-bred in order to overcome his species’ natural fear of humans. Wild chimps only attack humans in extreme circumstances – usually, they run away.

And, of course, what humans lack in sheer power we make up for in cunning. Afterall, all’s fair in love and war…

The super-intelligent apes starring in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes may exist only in the movies, but in real life, chimps, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos are more like us than you may have thought. I explore six ways in which great apes are almost human...

1. Language
No great apes can speak as we do, and as they do in the film, because they lack the physical apparatus – the organs within the vocal tract, such as larynx muscles and vocal cords, cannot be moved as quickly or coordinated as well as in humans. However, that does not mean that they cannot understand us or learn to use sign language.

All four kinds of great apes have been taught to communicate this way in captivity. The current star students are Koko, a lowland gorilla, and Kanzi, a 34-year-old bonobo.

Koko was born at San Francisco Zoo in 1971and has been trained to a high level of proficiency in American Sign Language. She has a vocabulary of more than 1,000 signs and understands about 2,000 words of spoken English.

Kanzi was the first ape to acquire language by being exposed to it from a young age. He knows the meaning of up to 3,000 English spoken words and communicates using an electronic lexigram (geometric symbol) touchpad.

Watch Kanzi in action, displaying incredible understanding of spoken commands, and learn more about efforts to teach apes language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBlDGX95eys

Kanzi demonstrates the use of the lexigram for reporter Lisa Ling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKauXrp9dl4

2. Emotion
Scientists, including Dr Jane Goodall, have described apes displaying a wide range of complex emotions once thought to be uniquely human.

Chimps in particular have very expressive faces, with similar musculature to our own, revealing joy, grief, fear and anger, and Dr Goodall believes that they possess an “almost human-like enjoyment of physical contact”.

Orangutans are believed to have a keen sense of humour, while young bonobos in a sanctuary have been observed offering hugs and kisses to calm companions in distress.

Gorillas have tried to intervene to protect a scared young male from the troop’s silverback in a show of empathy, while Koko (see above) expressed sadness at the death of her pet cat – see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQCOHUXmEZg

3. Memory
Ayumu the chimpanzee has made headlines around the world for his ability to beat humans on memory tests, in both speed and accuracy. Researchers at the Primate Research Institute in Kyoto, Japan, pit chimpanzees against human adults in tests of short-term memory, flashing up numbers in random places on a computer screen, then blanking them out. Ayumu can point out the correct order and location of the numbers in less than half a second. Impressive!

See Ayumu in action here http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/16832379

4. Self-awareness
Caesar and his buddies daubing their faces in war paint is not the first time apes have sported a spot of rouge.

The mirror test is used to determine if an animal can recognise themselves, which suggests a fairly sophisticated sense of self. The experiment involves marking an animal with a paint spot in a place that it can only see by looking at its reflection, such as on its face. If the animal tries to touch the mark while facing a mirror, it suggests that the animal recognises itself.

Human children gain the ability to pass the test around 18 months of age.  

Interestingly, while chimps, bonobos and orangutans pass with flying colours, gorillas were thought to fail until Koko (see above) tried her luck. It is believed that she overcame her species’ natural avoidance of eye contact – which is interpreted as an expression of aggression – to look at herself in the mirror, suggesting that gorillas can recognise themselves if they can conquer their natural instincts.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJFo3trMuD8

5. Tool use
Tool-making was considered a uniquely human ability until the 1960s when Jane Goodall observed chimpanzees using a twig to "fish" for ants in Gombe, Tanzania – the first documented case of wild chimps making and using tools.

When their cousins in West Africa's Ivory Coast were observed using "hammers" to crack open nuts, it was apparent that chimps were capable of the higher intelligence required to adapt what nature provided to achieve a specific goal.

Since then, chimps in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been seen using a variety of tools to extract termites from their nests. These "tool kits" are among the most complex ever observed in wild chimp populations.

In 2007, scientists described chimps in Senegal fashioning sticks into spears to hunt other mammals – lesser bush babies, small nocturnal primates, hidden deep in tree holes.

Watch young chimps learn how to use tools to get their food https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnOu0_DATxY

Watch the first evidence that wild gorillas use tools to cope with their environment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcqNzl49csA

6. Culture
Culture is another trait that’s no longer unique to humans. Researchers studying orangutans have demonstrated that great apes share our ability to learn socially and pass down certain behaviours through generations.

Studying six populations of orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra, Indonesia, researchers identified 24 behaviors that show evidence of being culturally transmitted. Many of the behaviors involve tool use – using sticks to dig seeds out of fruit, to poke into tree holes to obtain insects, or to scratch – or using leaves as napkins or as gloves to protect against spiny fruit.

Other traits that show evidence of cultural transmission include play and different forms of communication, such as blowing “raspberries" or making "kiss-squeaks" using leaves to amplify the sound.

Conclusion Great apes are smart, they’re sensitive and they’re self-aware. It seems that we humans aren’t so special afterall…