Excellent Wildlife and Nature Pictures

[Apollo]

This hungry bird gives another meaning to the term spear fishing - as she turns her unlucky prey into a fish kebab. The anhinga bird spotted the fish swimming in a river before setting her sights on it for tea. She dived in head first and expertly skewered the fish with her beak...  

*This image is copyright of its original author

     





A python became the focus of an epic tug-of-war between two leopards. The six-and-a-half-foot (2m) long African rock python became the unwilling "rope" in the game, after being caught by a female leopard in the long grass. But as she dragged it, still wriggling, along behind her, she was ambushed by her son who wanted to land the kill for himself. The young male snatched the end of the enormous snake in his powerful jaws, and tried to tug it away from his mother..  

*This image is copyright of its original author

      





A giant vulture and a hungry jackal fight over a pile of bones. Photographer Stephen Earle snapped the scene from a hide as the two animals battled at Giant's Castle Game Reserve in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. The vulture backed away following a one-minute stand-off with the black-backed jackal.
 
 

*This image is copyright of its original author

       






A ferocious great white shark looks like it is having a laugh as it smiles for the camera. Photographer Mike Parry was standing just 5ft away from the powerful predator when it broke through the water near his small fishing boat near Dyer Island, Cape Province, South Africa. He said: "No one on the boat could believe that I was lucky enough to catch the exact moment. It takes a lot of waiting and patience for that one lucky shot." 

*This image is copyright of its original author

      







 A hawk attacks a rabbit during an annual traditional hunting competition near the village of Uzynagash outside Almaty. Kazakhstan's national sport of Sayat - or hunting with birds of prey - is popular in the Central Asian state 

*This image is copyright of its original author

  Reply