Photographers captured critters in the wild at just the right moments, turning normal wildlife photos into something both funny and endearing.
Here are the finalists and winners from the 2017 annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. The competition awards photographers for capturing the funniest or most endearing photos of wildlife in unusual, compromising, silly or human-like dramatic situations.
The competition was created because of "a need for a photography competition that was light-hearted, upbeat, possibly unpretentious and mainly about wildlife doing funny things."
The photograph below is the year's overall winner. Actually, it's a series of four photographs of a three small owls perched upon a branch in Opusztaszer, Hungary. One of the owls struggles to hang on while its two comrades seem to ignore its plight. Here's one of the four photos by Tibor Kerccz:
Next we have "The Laughing Dormouse" by Andrea Zampatti, which won the Alex Walker's Serian on the Land category. "I was hiking on a mountain close to my hometown in Italy when I heard a strange squeaking from the woods and ... I found this cute baby dormouse on the top of a yarrow flower," Zampatti says.
Finalist Brian Valente took this photograph of a seal who looks to be having a good laugh about something.
Mama bear looks to be at her wits' end with those darn cubs of hers! This was from finalist Melissa Nolan of Martinselkonen, Finland.
Jasmine Vink took this photo of a chameleon seeming to express itself in extremely dramatic fashion. Perhaps it was auditioning for a Broadway play? In reality, the lizard was simply trying to reach for another branch.
A baby lemon shark smiles big, and with very human-like teeth, in this photo by Eugene Kitsios.
Three king penguins solemnly approach the only church on South Georgia Island. They appear to be dressed for a formal and sobering service. Image by Carl Henry.
Penny Palmer obviously snapped this photo of a sea otter at the moment the critter heard the Green Bay Packers had scored a touchdown!
"Looks like Kevin's afterburner project is paying dividends!" Image by John Threlfall.
Well, what can we say? Golf can be a tough game and sometimes this is just how you feel if you play poorly. Image by Douglas Croft.
If you want to see more photos from the competition or see the finalists from the last couple years, check out the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards website.
Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his Facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.
NEXT: WOODLAND ANIMALS YOU NEVER SEE AS BABIES
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