The hilarious winners of this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards* have been announced.

There were 5300 entries from 85 countries around the world and the chosen winner for this year was a Western Grey Kangaroo playing the air guitar*.

The shot, taken in Perth by Aussie photographer Jason Moore, was a happy accident.

After a disappointing* morning photographing birds at a nearby lake, Jason decided to try his luck with a faithful mob* that he drives past on his way to work.

Golden hour* lit up the wildflowers beautifully, the roos put on a show and Jason couldn’t help but smile as he captured his award-winning image.

Keep scrolling for 15 of the best photos from the awards.

GLOSSARY

• Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards: a competition celebrating funny and entertaining animal photographs from around the world
• air guitar: pretending to play a guitar without actually holding one
• disappointing: something that didn’t meet expectations or was not satisfying
• faithful mob: a group of animals that the photographer regularly sees or visits
• golden hour: the period shortly after sunrise or before sunset when the light is softer and redder than usual
• northern gannets: a species of seabirds found in the northern parts of the world
• UK: United Kingdom
• macaque: a type of monkey found in Asia and Africa
• arabesque: a graceful ballet pose or position
• white grouse: a type of bird resembling a chicken, found in cold regions
• barren landscape: a place with little or no vegetation
• heron: a long-legged freshwater and coastal bird
• inverted Snoopy impression: mimicking the character Snoopy from the peanuts comic strip in an upside-down manner
• cholla cactus skeleton: the dried remains or structure of a cholla cactus
• cricket debut: first appearance or attempt at playing cricket
• pretence: pretending or putting on a false appearance
• enchanted: captivated or fascinated

EXTRA READING

Tree corridors to save koalas in the wild

Great whites’ mystery deep dives

Visual history of Australia’s most famous house

QUICK QUIZ

1. How many entries were there in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards?
2. Where was the winning picture of the Western Grey Kangaroo playing the air guitar taken?
3. Why did Jason Moore decide to photograph the kangaroos?
4. In which country did a macaque direct jungle traffic?
5. What peculiar action did the white grouse seem to resemble?

LISTEN TO THIS STORY

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. Photo captions
Choose your top five favourite photos from the winners of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards and write a funny caption to suit the picture.

Share your captions with your classmates and vote on your favourite for each.

Time: allow 20 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

2. Extension
Look at all the finalists from the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

(https://www.comedywildlifephoto.com/gallery/finalists/2023_finalists.php)

Which photo would you have awarded first prize to? Explain why.

Time: allow 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, Visual Arts, Personal and Social, Critical and Creative Thinking

VCOP ACTIVITY
Animal alliterations
With a partner, choose one of the pictures from the article.

Make a list of nouns you could use to name the animal in the picture. For example, instead of a tiger, you could also say cat, or feline.

Pick your favourite noun and identify its initial sound — what sound it starts with, not necessarily what letter.

Now, using the initial sound, make a list of adjectives to describe the animal. Try to be specific. Don’t just look at the animal as a whole, look at their different features as well.

Build on these same sound words, and add any verbs and adverbs you could use to describe the animal and their movements.

Try to put it all together and use as many same sound words in a sentence, to create an alliteration about the animal in the picture. For example: the terrifying tiger, tiptoed through tangled trees chasing his prey.