Curious creatures and lush landscapes: The Nature Conservancy Australia 2021 photo contest
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Life Colour
During the wet season the Gulf of Carpentaria in tropical north Queensland holds a myriad of winding rivers, estuaries, creeks and streams that create one of nature’s intricate vivid landscapes. Lush green mangroves line the mud flats accentuated by the tidal waters and months of rain filling the artesian basin.
Photograph: Scott Portelli
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Mating Season
There are very few creatures in the animal kingdom that are so complex, so unique and so alien to us that we are mystified by their very existence. Hundreds of thousands of giant Australian cuttlefish (Sepia apama) gather each winter from May to August in the shallow waters of South Australia’s Upper Spencer Gulf Marine Park.
Photograph: Scott Portelli
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The Dragon and The Hopper
Eyrean earless dragon (Tympanocryptis tetraporophora) standing tall on a very hot rock in western Queensland. For a short time it was joined by a hopper, who jumped off before becoming lunch.
Photograph: Harrison Warne
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Manta Entourage
Gliding across the sandy flats on the inside of the Ningaloo reef, these manta rays often find themselves the hosts of small fish such as these juvenile golden trevally. Manta Rays frequent the inshore bays of the Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia, searching for plankton-rich waters to feed in and seeking shelter from larger open ocean predators. Taken on breath hold while freediving.
Photograph: Lewis Burnett
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Porpita porpita
I spend a lot of time walking the shoreline in search of what the ocean brings, and I was particularly fortunate on this day to come across a rare yellow blue button.
Photograph: Jacinta Shackleton
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Prickly
An echidna foraging for ants.
Photograph: Heather Markland
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Tree of Life
Aerial view taken from a helicopter of Lake Cakora in northern NSW. The creek draining the lake is coloured red by tannins from the surrounding vegetation.
Photograph: Tyler Moore
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Huge Feast
Monomorium kiliani ant feeding on a drop of honey on the leaf of a Swiss cheese plant.
Photograph: Peter Virag
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Black Cockatoo
Beautiful red-tailed cockatoo preening itself.
Photograph: Julie Balaam
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A ghost in the forest
This image is of the ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis), a rare bioluminescent fungus that glows in the dark. This photo is unique in that the fungus normally parasitises trees at their base, but in this case, the fungus was stacked up the trunk to almost 2 metres in height.
Photograph: Adam Fry
