National Geographic unveiled its Pictures of the Year. Here are 7 of the most stunning wildlife photos.
National Geographic spotlighted its Pictures of the Year in its December 2024 issue.
The photos include captivating images of animals, nature, scientific innovation, and landscapes.
Photo editors at the magazine chose the top 20 photos from a selection of 2.3 million images.
Every year, photographers at National Geographic travel around the world to share stories through their lenses.
Then, at the end of the year, the magazine's photo editors select "the most stunning photos" taken by its photographers for its annual Pictures of the Year issue.
This year, 20 pictures were selected from a pool of 2.3 million photographs. National Geographic said these images "capture a thought-provoking glimpse at the wonders of the world around us, which serve as a refreshing break from the hectic fall we've all had."
Take a look at seven of the best wildlife photos from the collection:
Ingo Arndt captured an image of a wood-ant hatchling breaking out of its cocoon.
Arndt and researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany built a see-through ant home that mimicked the insect's natural surroundings to observe how wood ants reproduce.
Through the nest, the photographer watched female colony workers clean eggs, larvae spin cocoons, and hatchlings open cocoons with their mandibles to capture this moment.
Christie Hemm Klok photographed a flock of macaws at The Oasis Sanctuary in southern Arizona.
Macaws are social birds with a lifespan of 40 to 60 years. They often struggle in captivity, displaying stressed behaviors that make them tough pets. Many are cared for at The Oasis Sanctuary in Benson, Arizona, which is home to about 800 parrots, cockatoos, macaws, and other bird species.
When Hemm Klok, the photographer, visited, the birds' loud noises proved challenging for her work until the sanctuary's director, Janet Trumbule, soothed them with their favorite treat: walnuts.
John Stanmeyer captured a rare moment: the emergence of brood XIX and brood XIII of cicadas.
For the first time in 221 years, brood XIII, with a 17-year cycle, and brood XIX, with a 13-year cycle, emerged simultaneously in the Midwest and southeastern United States, respectively, in May and June. The cicadas only emerge from the ground to reproduce.
Here, Stanmeyer managed to capture the rare moment in Springfield, Illinois.
In this photo by Ami Vitale, a scientist holds a 70-day-old rhino fetus.
With only two northern white rhinoceroses left in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, scientists from an international project called BioRescue proposed a new solution: using in vitro fertilization to transfer a southern-white-rhino embryo into a southern-white-rhino surrogate.
While the pregnancy was a success, the moment was bittersweet — the surrogate mother had died from an unrelated bacterial infection.
Still, the project was an overall win since it meant the in vitro technique worked on rhinos and could be replicated to save the northern-white species from extinction.
Bertie Gregory photographed a young emperor penguin leaping off a 50-foot cliff in Atka Bay, Antarctica.
In 2024, Gregory — who's been documenting penguins in Antarctica for eight years — witnessed a rarely seen spectacle: a line of young emperor penguins leaping off a tall ice shelf in Atka Iceport, otherwise known as Atka Bay.
Usually, the youngsters' first swim is on low-lying sea ice, where they normally breed.
But Gregory used a drone to follow the penguins when he saw what was happening. He watched as they successfully jumped off the cliff, an occurrence that scientists say could become a common sight as the ice melts.
Caught in flight: The photojournalist Babak Tafreshi captured Mexican free-tailed bats as they flew out of Frio Cave in Texas.
Frio Bat Cave in southern Texas is the spring and summer home of about 10 million Mexican free-tailed bats.
Most nights around sunset, bats fly out in a coordinated stream to feed on moths. "You think maybe it'll finish in 10 minutes," Tafreshi said, but their takeoff "continues for two hours."
Tafreshi used a fish-eye lens and soft flashes to document the moment, creating this 30-second single-exposure image.
Prasenjeet Yadav photographed this rarely seen black tiger at the Similipal Tiger Reserve in India.
About half of the 27 tigers in Similipal Tiger Reserve have black stripes. Still, they've rarely been spotted, even by longtime residents of the village. Still, Yadav was determined to photograph them.
To get them in the frame, he set up camera traps with infrared triggers on 24 trails, three of which ultimately saw regular tiger activity.
After spending 60 days inside the reserve, Yadav finally got this image of a young female tiger, one of just a few photos captured of the black tigers.
To see all 20 of National Geographic's Pictures of the Year, visit NatGeo.com/Photos.
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