A close up of a grizzly bear's face captures the moment as it shakes water off its fur. — Third Place, Mammals A wild grizzly bear in British Columbia slings water off its fur. © Luisa Pericoli

Wild Exposure

More than 180,000 entries from around the world gave a voice to nature in the 2023 Nature Conservancy Photo Contest. These are some of the winners.

February 23, 2024

Issue 1, 2024

An orange and yellow hot air balloon settles to the ground as blue wildebeests look on. — **First Place, People and Nature** Blue wildebeests watch a hot-air balloon as it deflates on Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. The balloon carried tourists who were observing the animals’ annual migration. © Michael Hegyi

“Photography allows us to capture a moment, unabashedly linger on it, and explore the subjects on it. What are they doing? Why are they there? What came before? What happens next?”

Photographer Michael Hegyi

a newt appears to be floating on the frog eggs it's consuming in a photo taken from below. — **Grand Prize Winner** At night, an alpine newt feasts on frog eggs in a German wetland. This photo was made by sinking a camera housing under water and remotely triggering the shutter. © Tibor Litauszki

A bird appears against a half light, half dark background as it catches an insect. — **Celebrity Judge Choice, Birds** A hoopoe bird in Dubai catches its breakfast in flight. For days, the photographer observed how the bird predictably returned to the same tree after snatching insects out of the air. © Hermis Haridas

a gray heron stands in a pond and is framed between the legs of humans walking by in the foreground. — **Second Place, People and Nature** A gray heron standing in a pond in Budapest, Hungary, goes barely noticed by people passing by. © Mano Aliczki

“The bird went unnoticed by most of the passersby, just as we often do not generally notice the creatures living around us in the city. However, we do not need to leave the city to meet wildlife. If we slow down, we can see how many living creatures we share our habitat with.”

Photographer Mano Aliczki

**Second Place, Underwater Life** The Taal Volcano eruption in the Philippines in early 2020 stirred up ocean sediments throughout the region. In Batangas Bay, this female paper nautilus hitchhikes on debris floating through the water column. The particles around it reflect the photographer’s flashlight, resembling falling snowflakes. © Jialing Cai

a forest with tall green pines and shorter, fall-colored trees in the foreground is seen through dense falling snow. — **First Place, Lands** The first snow of the season combines with the last remnants of fall color to create a vibrant tableau in Denali National Park. © Alessandro Carboni

**Second Place, Reptiles and Amphibians** Outdoor lights create a series of background halos for a Costa Rican hourglass treefrog that sits on a flower near a hotel pond. © Petr Bambousek

a prairie chicken seems to hover a few inches off the ground of a grassy prairie with its wings fully forward, obscuring its face. — **Second Place, Birds** A male lesser prairie-chicken in western Kansas performs his mating “dance.” These birds congregate on prairies in the spring to compete for the attention of females. In 2022, the species was listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service due to populations declining from habitat loss. © Mike Krehbiel

“While my images from this photo shoot did not portray the threats the lesser prairie-chickens face, it did provide me with the opportunity to discuss those threats with multiple people. We must all seize these opportunities and turn them into actions that better the world!”

Photographer Mike Krehbiel