Découvrez les plus beaux clichés d'animaux de l'année 2021
Un cliché inespéré de mérous en plein accouplement a valu au français Laurent Ballesta le prestigieux titre de Photographe animalier de l’année.

A young elephant performs underwater for spectators in Thailand. This image, by Australian photographer Adam Oswell, won the award for Photojournalism. Advocacy groups concerned with the welfare of captive elephants view performances like these as exploitative because they encourage unnatural behaviour and rely on fear-based training to make an elephant compliant.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Adam Oswell, Wildlife Photographer of the YearAlex Mustard, based in the U.K., found a ghost pipefish hiding among the arms of a feather star. This clever photograph won the award for Natural Artistry. The fish’s bright colours signify that it has landed on the coral reef within the past 24 hours. In a day or two, its color pattern will change, enabling it to blend in with the feather star.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Alex Mustard, Wildlife Photographer of the YearTwo male cichlid fish fight jaw to jaw over a snail shell in Lake Tanganyika, the oldest of the East African Great Lakes. Inside the half-buried shell is a female ready to lay eggs. The lake is home to more than 240 species of cichlid fishes, which are threatened by chemical runoff and overfishing. This image won Spanish photographer Angel Fitor the Portfolio Award.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Angel Fitor, Wildlife Photographer of the YearItsaso Vélez del Burgo, director of Lwiro Primates Rehabilitation Center in South Africa, introduces a young, traumatized chimpanzee to another orphaned survivor. The center cares for around a hundred young chimps whose parents were killed for bushmeat, or who were rescued from the pet trade themselves. South African photographer Brent Stirton won the Photojournalist Story Award for his work at the center.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Brent Stirton, Wildlife Photographer of the YearAfter noticing tiny spiders all over his bedroom in Brazil, Israeli-Canadian photographer Gil Wizen looked under his bed. There, he found a venomous Brazilian wandering spider—one of the world’s most venomous spiders—guarding its brood. Before safely relocating it outdoors, he photographed the hand-size creature using forced perspective to make it appear even larger. For this daring image, he won the award for Urban Wildlife.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Gil Wizen, Wildlife Photographer of the YearA fishing spider stretches out silk from its spinnerets to weave into its egg sac in this image, which won the award for Invertebrate Behavior. Israel-Canadian photographer Gil Wizen discovered the spider under loose bark. The spiders are common in wetlands and temperate forests of eastern North America. More than 750 eggs have been recorded in a single sac.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Gil Wizen, Wildlife Photographer of the YearSpanish photographer Javier Lafuente shows the stark, straight line of a road slicing through the curves of a wetland landscape. The road was constructed in the 1980s to provide access to a beach, and cuts the wetland in two. The tidal wetland is home to more than a hundred species of birds, with ospreys and bee-eaters among many migratory visitors.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE © Javier Lafuente, Wildlife Photographer of the YearAmerican photographer Jennifer Hayes captures harp seals and their newborn pups on melting sea ice in this image that won the award for “Oceans: Bigger Picture.” Every autumn, harp seals migrate south from the Arctic to their breeding grounds, delaying births until the sea ice forms. Seals depend on the ice, which means that future population numbers are likely to decline because of climate change.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Jennifer Hayes, Wildlife Photographer of the YearPortuguese photographer João Rodrigues was surprised by a pair of courting sharp-ribbed salamanders in a flooded forest on Morocco’s Iberian Peninsula. It was João’s first chance in five years to dive in this lake, as it only fills during winters with exceptionally heavy rainfall, when underground rivers overflow. To capture this image, the winner for Amphibian and Reptile Behavior, he had only a split second to adjust his camera settings before the amphibians swam away.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE João Rodrigues, Wildlife Photographer of the YearCette image rare et frappante de mérous en plein accouplement prise par Laurent Ballesta a été primée dans la catégorie sous-marine du concours et lui a aussi valu le Grand Prix de Photographe animalier de l’année. Laurent Ballesta est français et scrute les profondeurs de l’océan dans l’atoll de Fakarava, en Polynésie française, à la recherche de mérous camouflages quittant leur nuage laiteux fait d’œufs et de spermatozoïdes. Lui et son équipe sont retournés dans ce lagon pendant cinq ans et ont plongé jour et nuit pour observer ces animaux en période de frai.
Photographer Majed Ali from Kuwait trekked for four hours in a Ugandan national park to meet Kibande, an almost 40- year-old mountain gorilla. “The more we climbed, the hotter and more humid it got,” Ali recalls. As cool rain began to fall, Kibande remained in the open, seeming to enjoy the shower. That’s when he snapped this photograph, the winner for Animal Portrait.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Majed Ali, Wildlife Photographer of the YearSlovakian-Canadian photographer Martin Gregus used a drone to capture two female polar bears playing in shallow intertidal waters in Canada’s Hudson Bay, on a hot summer day. This image was part of a portfolio of Gregus’ work documenting these bears over three weeks that won the Rising Star Portfolio Award. Polar bears’ struggle to survive amid climate change is well documented, and Gregus wanted to capture them at leisure, in summer, to show them in a different light.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Martin Gregus, Wildlife Photographer of the YearCanadian photographer Shane Kalyn won the award for Bird Behavior for this image of a raven courtship display in British Columbia. The couple exchanged gifts—moss, twigs, and small stones—and preened and serenaded each other with soft warbling sounds to strengthen their relationship. Kalyn lay on the frozen ground using the muted light to capture the detail.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Shane Kalyn, Wildlife Photographer of the YearTwo Svalbard reindeer battle for control of a harem in Svalbard, Norway, in this image, which won the Mammal Behavior category. Italian photographer Stefano Unterthiner followed these reindeer during the mating season. Watching the fight, he felt immersed in “the smell, the noise, the fatigue, and the pain,” he says. The reindeer clashed antlers until the dominant male, on the left, chased its rival away, securing the opportunity to breed.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Stefano Unterthiner, Wildlife Photographer of the YearIn Montana, American photographer Zak Clothier set up a camera trap in bull elk remains. Later, he returned to find that grizzly bears had trashed his setup. This image, which won the award for Animals in their Environment, was the last frame captured on the camera.
PHOTOGRAPHIE DE Zack Clothier, Wildlife Photographer of the Year