These hilarious wildlife photographs will cheer up your day

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Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021 reveal some of the best entries received so far for this year's competition

Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021
(Image credit: Giovanni Querzani/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021)

If you love cute photographs of animals then the annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards are a must - and are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face. The 2021 competition is well under way - with entries due to close on 30 June. But to get you in the mood - and to encourage for you to dig out your most amusing images of wildlife, the organizers had released some of the most amusing entries it has received so far. Some will have you rolling on the floor laughing, like the shot above of a lion by Giovanni Querzani in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

Giovanni took the image using his Sony A7 mirrorless camera fitted with a Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS lens, using an ISO320 exposure of 1/500sec at f/6.3.

Other gems submitted so far include:

Bald eagle gets a surprise from a prarie dog, shot by Arthur Trevino in Colorado, USA. Sony A9 with Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS. 1/1000sec at f/11, ISO500. (Image credit: Arthur Trevino/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021)

Monday Morning Mood by Andrew Mayes - Pied Starling shot in the Rietvlei Nature Reserve, South Africa. Canon EOS 800D DSLR with Sigma 150-600mm f/5.6-6.3 Contemporary lens. 1/640sec at f/6.3, ISO800. (Image credit: Andrew Mayes/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021)

"Quarantine Life". Family of raccoons shot by Kevin Biskaborn in South Western Ontario, Canada.  Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Zuiko 40-150mm f/2.8. 1/200sec at f/2.8, ISO500. (Image credit: Kevin Biskaborn/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021)

Yellow Bittern, Singapore. Olympus OM-D E-M1 II with Zuiko 300mm f/4 with 1.4x teleconverter. 1/800sec at f/5.6, ISO200. (Image credit: KT Wong/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards)

Boxfish, Curacao, Dutch Caribbean. Canon PowerShot G7 II. 1/125sec at f/7.1, ISO320. (Image credit: Phillip Stahr/Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards)

Last year's winning shot

Last year's Comedy Wildlife Photographer of the Year winner (Image credit: Mark Fitzpatrick/Comedy Wildlife Awards 2020)

The winner of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2020 was Mark Fitzpatrick from Australia - who shot this underwater image of a turtle giving the bird. It was shot when the Australian photographer was swimming off Lady Elliot Island in Queensland, Australia. 

Now in its seventh year, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards were co-founded in 2015 by professional photographers Paul Joynson-Hicks MBE and Tom Sullam. The duo wanted to create a competition that focused on the lighter side of wildlife photography and would help promote the conservation of wildlife and habitats through humor. Each year, the competition highlights a charity working tirelessly to protect vulnerable species. For 2021 the competition is supporting Save Wild Orangutans by donating 10% of its total net revenue to the charity. The initiative safeguards wild orangutans in and around Gunung Palung National Park, Borneo.

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021 is free to enter. Photographers can enter up to ten photographs across the six categories which include Land, Air, Juniors (for those aged 16 and under), Portfolio (a selection of four images), Underwater and Video Clips. This year the prizes range from a once-in-a-lifetime safari in the Maasai Mara in Kenya, a subscription to Affinity Photo, and a camera bag from ThinkTank. For more details visit the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards website.

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Chris George
Chris George

Chris George has worked on Digital Camera World since its launch in 2017. He has been writing about photography, mobile phones, video making and technology for over 30 years – and has edited numerous magazines including PhotoPlus, N-Photo, Digital Camera, Video Camera, and Professional Photography. 

His first serious camera was the iconic Olympus OM10, with which he won the title of Young Photographer of the Year - long before the advent of autofocus and memory cards. Today he uses a Nikon D800, a Fujifilm X-T1, a Sony A7, and his iPhone 15 Pro Max.

He has written about technology for countless publications and websites including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Dorling Kindersley, What Cellphone, T3 and Techradar.