14-05-2025
Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition touches down in Sydney
A young hawk feasts on the remains of an unlucky squirrel. A slime mould and tiny springtail rest beneath a log. A swarm of tadpoles school beneath clouds of lily pads.
Sydneysiders will have the chance to see 100 awe-inspiring shots from around the world in the annual tour of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition later this month at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
Jannico Kelk, a photographer and ecologist, won the show's Impact Award last year for his shot of a greater bilby in South Australia.
The greater bilby is near extinction, but within fenced reserves where many predators have been eradicated, they are thriving. ( Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024: Jannico Kelk )
Mr Kelk has spent the last six years photographing threatened native animals that have been reintroduced into a fenced reserve.
Conservationists have spent decades eradicating predators like foxes and cats from the area, a project that has allowed species like the bilby to thrive. Similar efforts are underway in parts of regional NSW.
"I've gotten very intimate with the landscape, I've seen it change," Mr Kelk said.
The Cooper's Hawk is a common species across southern Canada, the USA, and central Mexico, where it inhabits mature and open woodlands. ( Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024: Parham Pourahmad )
"I've seen it in the worst drought known in modern history — with virtually no animals — and I've seen that drought break."
The bilby in his photograph was captured after a period of heavy rain helped populations multiply.
He used a camera rigged to a motion sensor camera trap after finding the animal's burrow and using its tracks to figure out where to set up the shot.
While the photograph took him about a week to capture, he said "realistically" it took him five years to gain knowledge of the wildlife and how bilbies interact in the landscape.
Mr Kelk titled the photo Hope for the Ninu, using an Indigenous word for bilby.
"[I'm] trying to tell stories with images," he said, pointing to his own work in conservation and ecology.
"Whether these stories get people to care is one thing, but I want them just to know about these animals and get their little stories out."
The fruiting body of slime mould and a tiny springtail. ( Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas )
Photographs to 'surprise, inspire and amaze'
Mr Kelk's photograph will join other category winners and finalists from the 2024 awards, which were first announced in October.
The images come from an array of categories, including animals in their environment, urban wildlife and plants and fungi, among many more.
This year's show will open at the Australian National Maritime Museum on May 15 and run until mid-October.
"These are powerful, beautiful and perfectly-timed images that surprise, inspire and amaze," the museum's director Daryl Karp said in a statement.
"There is no better space to lose and immerse yourself in this planet's natural world."
