{"id":76684,"date":"2026-08-20T16:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76684\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T16:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T16:36:11","slug":"ecology-photo-competition-showcases-wild-cuttlefish-birds-and-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76684\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecology photo competition showcases wild cuttlefish, birds and science"},"content":{"rendered":"

A damsel fly peeking out of a window in a leaf has taken out the top prize in an ecology journal’s annual photo competition.<\/p>\n

Other images highlighted in the competition featured frogs, fish, birds, and ecologists hard at work \u2014 often in uncomfortable conditions.<\/p>\n

The BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology image competition<\/a> is open to researchers in ecology, evolutionary biology, palaeontology and zoology from around the world.<\/p>\n

This year, the winning entry came from Sritam Kumar Sethy, a student at Berhampur University in India, while Australian researchers and wildlife snagged awards in several categories.<\/p>\n

Mr Kumar Sethy’s photo (above) showed an orange-tailed marsh dart damsel fly (Ceriagrion cerinorubellum) in a wetland in the Indian state of Odisha.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Florida manatees drinking from a freshwater source in the Everglades National Park, USA. (Supplied: Brandon G\u00fcell, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

This image of manatees by Brandon G\u00fcellwas highly commended.<\/p>\n

Relationships in nature<\/p>\n

Victor Huertas Martin, a marine biologist at James Cook University, won the Relationship category with a photo of duelling giant cuttlefish (Ascarosepion apama) in the Spencer Gulf.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

A male giant cuttlefish blocks the approach of another towards a female during the species\u2019 annual spawning. (Supplied: Victor Huertas, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

He snapped a moment from the cuttlefish’s famous annual breeding season, when tens of thousands of colour-changing fish gather in the shallow waters around Whyalla and squabble for mates.<\/p>\n

Dr Huertas, who studies tropical fish, said he made the trip down to the cold South Australian waters out of interest.<\/p>\n

“I was absolutely blown away by what I saw there,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The only thing that got me out of the water was the temperature.”<\/p>\n

Dr Huertas said the giant cuttlefish were less shy than the tropical reef fish he was used to observing.<\/p>\n

“They didn’t seem to be bothered with my presence at all,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When they’re busy mating, there’s only one thing in mind, and they don’t care about anything else.”<\/p>\n

Dr Huertas’s trip was in 2023. This year, the waters around Whyalla have been eerily silent<\/a>, with experts fearing the algal bloom has caused a crash in the cuttlefish population.<\/p>\n

“I’m not only concerned about this population, but also the ramifications for the entire ecosystem,” Dr Huertas said.<\/p>\n

Dr Huertas said we do not yet know the extent of the damage to the cuttlefish population, or whether it will recover in the coming years.<\/p>\n

“We’re all holding our breath and hoping for the best.”\"A<\/p>\n

Noisy friarbirds mobbing a brown goshawk in the ACT’s Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary. (Supplied: Alwin Hardenbol, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Alwin Hardenbol, a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural Resources Institute Finland, came runner-up in the category with a shot from Mulligans Flat in the ACT.<\/p>\n

Dr Hardenbol, who studies forestry, said he was walking in the reserve “simply as a tourist” when he saw a showdown between a brown goshawk (Tachyspiza fasciata) and two noisy friarbirds (Philemon corniculatus).<\/p>\n

The friarbirds were “mobbing” the predator: harassing, swooping and calling to discourage it and alert other birds in the area.<\/p>\n

“Taking on a raptor as a much smaller bird must take quite some courage,” Dr Hardenbol said.<\/p>\n

While Dr Hardenbol has spent decades photographing nature, he said this shot was something of a lucky moment.<\/p>\n

“But spending time in nature will often reward you like that.”Protecting our planet<\/p>\n

The winning image in the Protecting Our Planet category displayed a road linking islands along the St Lawrence Seaway, which connects North America’s Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

\"Fisheye<\/p>\n

This stereographic drone shot of the St Lawrence Seaway in North America won the Protecting Our Planet category. (Supplied: Allen Tian, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The islands, which were made when a dam flooded the surrounding region in the 1950s, are now a bird sanctuary where photographer Allen Tian was conducting DNA research.<\/p>\n

The runner-up photo in the category came from India’s west coast, where locals have been helping olive ridley sea turtle hatchlings (Lepidochelys olivacea) make it safely into the ocean as part of a community-led conservation effort.<\/p>\n

\"Tiny<\/p>\n

Runner-up in the Protecting Our Planet category, this picture shows a hatchling olive ridley sea turtle being helped into the surf by a local. (Supplied: Abhijeet Bayani, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Research in action<\/p>\n

The competition’s overall runner-up showed a rainy night with students Alyson Yates and Ally Rounds attaching a radio transmitter to a northern red-legged frog (Rana aurora) to learn about its movements.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Competition runner-up shows students performing frog research near Portland, Oregon, USA. (Supplied: Ryan Wagner, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Research In Action category winner depicted another dark, wet night, with undergraduate students sorting through a beach seine net sampling the coastal waters of New Brunswick, Canada.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

The Research In Action category winner shows undergraduate students on a moonlit Canadian beach.\u00a0 (Supplied: Liam Brennan, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Luke Jeffrey, a research fellow at Southern Cross University, was highly commended overall for his picture of himself in a Northern Territory melaleuca wetland.<\/p>\n

Dr Jeffrey investigates microbes in tree bark, which can play a key role in greenhouse gas recycling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Luke Jeffrey’s selfie while climbing a tree in the Northern Territory to monitor microbial communities in its bark. (Supplied: Luke Jeffrey, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Wildlife scientist Vineet Kumar’s photo of a Himalayan cave was also highly commended overall.<\/p>\n

Dr Kumar and a team of researchers from the Zoological Survey of India were in the area searching for an endangered Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos isabellinus).<\/p>\n

\"Dark<\/p>\n

This image of a researcher resting in a Himalayan cave while on a bear hunt was highly commended. (Supplied: Vineet Kumar, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

The team, which researches interactions between bears and humans, was surprised to find the bearless cave had been used by nomadic shepherds grazing sheep.<\/p>\n

An image of field technicians sampling wildlife in the Everglades was runner-up in the research in action category.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The runner-up in the Research In Action category displayed field technicians in Florida’s Everglades National Park, USA. (Supplied: Brandon\u00a0G\u00fcell, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n

A full explanation of each image and the judgements has been published in a journal editorial<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A damsel fly peeking out of a window in a leaf has taken out the top prize in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,113700,113701,113697,9157,30653,59667,113699,113698],"class_list":["post-76684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-bmc","tag-bmc-ecology-and-evolution-and-bmc-zoology-image-competition","tag-damselfly","tag-ecology","tag-forestry","tag-marine-biology","tag-nature-journal","tag-photo-competition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}