Heartbreaking photo of performing monkey wins major wildlife award

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Jasper Doest from the Netherlands has been named the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year with his photo of a snow monkey in a Japanese sake house

Jasper Doest from the Netherlands wins the competition with the photo of a snow monkey in a tavern north of Tokyo (Image credit: Jasper Doest)

The German Society for nature photography (GDT) has announced the winning photographs from this year’s European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Chosen from more than 19,000 entries from 38 countries, Jasper Doest from The Netherlands has won the overall title with with his photo A monkey’s mask, which depicts a snow monkey in a tavern north of Tokyo. Taken in a traditional Japanese sake house north of Tokyo, the image is part of Jasper’s series for National Geographic that sheds light on the relationship between humans and Japanese macaques.

For jury member Angel Fitor, the photo is an icon of our time. “A macaque on stage takes off his mask in front of a fake forest. As the mask slips, the wall of arrogance that we have built between us and nature over many centuries collapses”.

In the category Birds Ben Cranke from Great Britain won with the image of a column of king penguins at St. Andrews Bay (Image credit: Ben Cranke)

(Image credit: Grzegorz Dlugosz)

'Blooming desert' is the name of Italian Marcus Gaiotti's winning image in the category Plants and Fungi (Image credit: Marco Gaiotti)

Special portfolio winners

The Fritz Pölking Prize is a special category, dedicated to nature photography stories and portfolios. Florian Smit won the Fritz Pölking Junior Prize with a portfolio about the Siberian jay in the deepest forests of Lapland.

(Image credit: Florian Smit)

European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020

(Image credit: Florian Smit)

(Image credit: Florian Smit)

(Image credit: Florian Smit)

Find out more about European Wildlife POTY

Although it was originally intended as a one-off event in 2001, the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year has now established itself as an event of international renown in the nature and wildlife photography sphere.

The annual competition is open for all photographers residing within Europe and for GDT members, and the judges place a special emphasis on the ethics of wildlife photography.

View all the winners and find out more on the GDT website.

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Lauren Scott
Lauren Scott
Freelance contributor/former Managing Editor

Lauren is a writer, reviewer, and photographer with ten years of experience in the camera industry. She's the former Managing Editor of Digital Camera World, and previously served as Editor of Digital Photographer magazine, Technique editor for PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine, and Deputy Editor of our sister publication, Digital Camera Magazine. An experienced journalist and freelance photographer, Lauren also has bylines at Tech Radar, Space.com, Canon Europe, PCGamesN, T3, Stuff, and British Airways' in-flight magazine. When she's not testing gear for DCW, she's probably in the kitchen testing yet another new curry recipe or walking in the Cotswolds with her Flat-coated Retriever.