A breathtaking drone image capturing young sharks hunting fish in the shallow waters of the Maldives has won the top prize at this year’s Royal Society Publishing Photography Competition. The photograph, taken by Angela Albi, a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour in Germany, showcases the dramatic interaction between predator and prey. Albi collaborated with drone pilot August Paula to capture the image, which depicts a school of silverside fish being pursued by four young reef sharks.
The photo was taken during the early morning or late evening when the Maldives’ shallow waters offer crystal-clear visibility, providing the perfect conditions to witness the hunting behavior of the sharks. “Just after sunrise or before sundown, the shallow waters of the Maldives become a clear, see-through surface,” Albi explained, adding that these are the moments when shark-prey interactions are most visible.
The judges were impressed by the raw dynamics captured in the photograph. Hugh Turvey, a member of the competition’s judging panel, remarked that the image highlights “the raw instincts of nature,” with the school of fish moving in unison before splitting to evade the sharks.
Albi’s image won in the behavior category and was also named the overall winner of the competition. The contest features five categories: astronomy, behavior, Earth science and climatology, ecology and environmental science, and microimaging.
In the astronomy category, photographer Imran Sultan took an intricate shot of two nebulae in the Cassiopeia constellation, located over 7,000 light-years away. Meanwhile, David Garcia’s stunning photograph of a supraglacial melting lake in Greenland won the top award in the Earth science and climatology category, taken with an iPhone during a brief moment of light on his flight over the region.
In the microimaging category, “Tired eyes,” an image of the eyes of a bark scorpion, won first place. Photographer Jose Manuel Martinez Lopez captured the image by taking 110 photos of a dried specimen. Lastly, Peter Hudson’s photo of a secretary bird preparing to feast on a locust claimed the prize in the ecology and environmental science category.
A selection of the winning and runner-up images can be viewed in the competition’s online gallery.