These hilarious wildlife photographs will cheer up your day

(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:

Last year's winning shot

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.

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.

Last year's winning shot

Get the Digital Camera World Newsletter