Mediadrumimages / Peter Thompson

By Mark McConville

 

THESE INCREDIBLE images show the highlights of the natural world from Media Drum World in 2018.

Wildlife photographer Liu Chia-Pin caught this Black Drongo bird hitching a ride on the back of a Crested Serpent eagle in Taiepi, Taiwan.
Mediadrumimages / Liu Chia-Pin

 

The remarkable photogaphs captured some of the more unusual encounters in wildlife this year from a Black Drongo bird hitching a ride on a Crested Serpent Eagleā€™s back to a herd of buffalo turning the tables on a lion and chasing the predator away.

South African photographer captured this Chacma baboon dishing out some discipline to a juvenile while another pulls its tail in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Mediadrumimages / John Mullineux

 

Other stunning pictures revealed some of natureā€™s more lighthearted moments as a ā€˜Curious Georgeā€™ gorilla reached out to the photographer and a juvenile baboon got scolded by his mother while his sibling pulled his tail.

Bottlenose dolphins are often seen breaching near Chanonry Point, in the Moray Firth. The mammals can stay submerged for up to 15 minutes. Taken by Charlie Phillips.
Mediadrumimages / Charlie Phillips

 

Fearsome predators were also captured in action with a huge Great White shark pictured breaching the water, cheetahs taking down an unlucky springbok and two huge brown bears brawling and snarling as they faced off against each other.

Bridgena Barnard captured the moment two cheetahs chased down a springbok in Kalahari Transfrontier Park.
Mediadrumimages / Bridgena Barnard

 

Other highlights include a pregnant leopard having herself a lovely feast after taking down a warthog, a Polar bear and her baby looking directly at the camera as the sun sets and a huge colony of King Penguins re-enacting Happy Feet by swarming on a beach.

THE TREMENDOUS difficulty of the day-to-day life of a wildlife photographer was revealed in a new book about the Arctic by Paul Souders who caputred these Polar bears on his solo journey through the Arctic.
Mediadrumimages / Paul Souders

 

A trio of dolphins were also caught putting on a ballet display for onlookers as they flipped in and out of the water.

Polar photographer David Merron (42), from Toronto, Canada, captured this ‘sea of Penguins’ at South Georgia in the Sub Antarctic Islands of Antarctica.
Mediadrumimages / David Merron

Some photographers even got a little too close for comfort as this extreme close-up of an American Saltwater crocodile proves with the photographer actually swimming alongside the huge predator.

This remarkable encounter was captured in Jardines de la Reina, Cuba by apparel company owner Eldad Choen (42) from Los Angeles, USA, who wanted to do something unique for his birthday. so he swam alongside a nine-foot-long American crocodile.
Mediadrumimages / Eldad Cohen

 

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