Southern beauties captured in nature

From an orange-eyed tree frog attracting the wrong kind of females to Venus and Jupiter aside a giant grass tree, this year’s winners of the 2016 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year showcase the extraordinary natural wonder of the Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea regions.

The competition, now in its 13th year, was developed by the South Australian Museum in partnership with Australian Geographic to play raise awareness of conservation issues and the fragility of our natural world.

This year prizewinners featured evocative animal portraits and spectacular landscapes selected from a record 2,171 competition entries, submitted by more than 450 professional, emerging and junior photographers from around the world.

Overall winner Queensland photographer Matthew McIntosh impressed the judges with his image of an orange-eyed tree frog trying to attract the attention of its female counterparts.

“Several male orange-eyed frogs were pronouncing their prowess, attempting to attract females. [But] some of the frogs enticed the wrong kind – bloodthirsty female mosquitoes in search of a meal,” McIntosh said, describing the scene in the winning photo taken at Cedar Bay National Park, Queensland.

Some 11 category winners were also awarded for their remarkable nature photographs, including animal portrait, animal behaviour, animal habitat, botanical, landscape, monochrome, interpretive, junior, our impact, threatened species and a portfolio prize to the Western Australian photographer Georgina Steytler, who entered the best portfolio of six entries.

An exhibition of the winners and more than 100 inspiring finalists images is currently on show at the South Australian Museum until 2 October and the Australian Museum, Sydney, until 9 October.