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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/05/badger-admiring-art-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-peoples-choice-award>
"A badger captured glancing up at a graffiti version of itself has won the
Natural History Museum’s people’s choice award for wildlife photographer of the
year.
The image was taken by a British photographer, Ian Wood, on a quiet road in St
Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex.
After residents started leaving food scraps on the pavement for foxes, Wood
noticed that badgers from a nearby sett were also coming to forage.
Seeing one walking along the pavement by his wall one night, he set up a small
hide on the edge of the road to capture the animal reaching for food,
illuminated only by light from a lamp-post.
The resulting photograph beat 24 other shortlisted images after a record 76,000
votes from around the world were counted, the Natural History Museum said.
Dr Douglas Gurr, the museum’s director, said: “Ian’s flawlessly timed image
offers a unique glimpse of nature’s interaction with the human world,
underscoring the importance of understanding urban wildlife. His exceptional
photograph serves as a powerful reminder that local nature and wildlife, often
just outside our homes, can inspire and captivate us.”
Wood said winning the award was “truly humbling”, but he also highlighted the
“darker side” to the image as he called for an end to badger culling in the UK,
which aims to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis.
“I live in rural Dorset, where I’m on a rewilding mission to enhance habitats
for a huge array of wildlife,” he said. “The badger cull – which is still
ongoing – has decimated their numbers and I fear that unless the cull is
stopped, we’ll only see badgers in urban settings in several parts of England.
“My hope is for this image to raise awareness of the damaging effect of the
badger cull and help push for change.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
