Buzzing ‘Bee Balls,’ Busy Beavers, and Beyond: Winners of BigPicture Photography Competition 2022 Revealed

Buzzing ‘Bee Balls,’ Busy Beavers, and Beyond: Winners of BigPicture Photography Competition 2022 Revealed
Left: (Courtesy of Karine Aigner); Right: Courtesy of Bence Máté
Epoch Inspired Staff
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Each year, the California Academy of Sciences’ renowned BigPicture Photography Competition celebrates some of the world’s best photographers and the year’s most striking images. Judged by an esteemed panel of nature and conservation photography experts, including Suzi Eszterhas, Sophie Stafford, and bioGraphic contributing photo editor Jaymi Heimbuch, the competition’s winning images and finalists highlight Earth’s biodiversity. Each photo, in its own way, inspires viewers to protect and conserve the remarkable diversity of life on Earth. Below, we present the winners and some of our personal favorites from this year’s competition.

Grand Prize Winner

"Bee Balling." (Courtesy of Karine Aigner)
"Bee Balling." Courtesy of Karine Aigner

On a warm spring morning in South Texas, a female cactus bee (Diadasia rinconis) emerged from her small, cylindrical nest in the ground, rising like ash from a chimney. Almost instantly, she was swarmed by dozens of patrolling males, their tawny bodies forming a buzzing, roiling “mating ball” as they vied for a chance to “court” her. After a tumultuous 20 seconds or so, the ball of bees dissipated, and the female flew off — a single, victorious male holding tight to her back.

Because they make individual nests rather than living in a collective hive, cactus bees are considered solitary. However, the designation is somewhat misleading; the bees nest in close proximity to one another, and their mating aggregations can number in the thousands — a spectacular, highly charged sight for any lucky human observers. “Mating in the bee balls often takes place on extremely hot, bare ground,” said entomologist Avery Russell from Missouri State University, “so the grappling males might risk cooking themselves [to mate].” They also face stiff competition. “The sex ratio in this species is often wildly lopsided, with single females emerging occasionally, dozens of patrolling males finding her in seconds, and potentially thousands of males flying overhead,” he added.

Mating aggregations only last for a little more than a week, so photographer Karine Aigner was fortunate to capture this particular mating ball. While rarely noticed or documented by humans, these native bees play a critical role as pollinators, especially for prickly pear cacti, a critical source of sustenance for many species in the dry American southwest.

Aquatic Life Finalist

"Tunnel Vision." (Courtesy of Tom Shlesinger)
"Tunnel Vision." Courtesy of Tom Shlesinger

Each year, from August to early October, Atlantic goliath groupers (Epinephelus itajara) gather off the east coast of Florida to spawn. On dark nights when the moon is new, refrigerator-sized males produce low-frequency booming sounds by contracting their swim bladders, calling other groupers to congregate around shipwrecks or rocky reefs. Fifty years ago, more than 100 fish might answer the call. But by 1990, the slow-moving species had been reduced to just a handful of fish. That year, goliath groupers were protected, and the population slowly began to recover. While Florida’s mating aggregations have not yet attained the numbers local fishermen recall from the 1970s, it’s now common to see 20 to 40 groupers together during the breeding season.

Photographer and coral reef ecologist Tom Shlesinger has witnessed this spectacle many times in recent years, but swimming with these 800-pound gentle giants never gets old. During one dive last September, he watched, captivated, as a large male swam calmly through a huge, swirling school of round scads (Decapterus punctatus). “It looked like he was swimming through a tunnel of fish,” Shlesinger recalled, “and I immediately knew this was the perfect moment to capture a unique perspective.”

Human/Nature Finalist

"Face to Face." (Courtesy of Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar)
"Face to Face." Courtesy of Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar

Two creatures face off through a woven-wire fence: one predator, the other prey; one wild, the other raised for our use. The moment is a manifestation of two worlds colliding, with no clear indication of which will prevail. Such images, of the natural world intersecting with one so heavily impacted by humans, have become a near obsession for Mexico-based photographer Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar. And few places in the world present as many opportunities to capture the conflict firsthand as Martínez Belmar’s native Yucatán Peninsula, home to both the elusive jaguar (Panthera onca) and one of Mexico’s fastest-growing tourist hotspots, the “Maya Riviera.”

The largest predators in the neotropics, jaguars require a significant amount of space in order to find sufficient prey — the average home range of a male jaguar spans some 38 square miles. Inevitably, as human populations have expanded into the jaguar’s habitat, the species’s distribution has shrunk. Scientists are now working to identify conservation strategies and priorities to best support the remaining populations. In Mexico, one of the most important regions of focus is the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatán Peninsula, which is home to nearly half of the country’s 4,000–5,000 jaguars. Here, the cats are thriving in two protected areas: Yum Balam on the northern tip of the peninsula and Sian Ka’an some 140 miles to the south. Between the two reserves sit Cancún, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum.

Until recently, scientists had little hope that a viable ecological corridor could exist between the two protected areas, given the heavily developed land that links them. However, a radio tracking study published earlier this year suggests that jaguars are not only using this corridor — they are establishing home ranges along its route. While the cats prefer forested or secondary growth areas over profusely disturbed habitat, they are capable of capitalizing on opportunities presented by human development. One male, for instance, centered his home range on a landfill, where he found a plentiful source of prey in the form of feral dogs and other animals that scavenged at the site. The resilience demonstrated by these individuals provides hope that with thoughtful planning around future development in the area, the Yucatán Peninsula’s jaguars can continue to thrive.

Terrestrial Life Winner

Spider Web. (Courtesy of Bence Máté)
Spider Web. Courtesy of Bence Máté

It was dawn in Hungary’s Kiskunsag National Park, and photographer Bence Máté lay still, barely breathing, on a coffin-sized floating hide. In front of him, a Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) was busy gnawing on a tree, backlit by the first rays of morning sun. Nearby, previously felled trees emerged like dock pilings from the mist-shrouded water, one of them festooned with a glowing spider web. The ethereal scene was more than just beautiful; it was a striking illustration of the idea that beavers transform their environments when they build dams, creating habitats that are utilized by many other species.

Eurasian beavers were once widespread across Europe and Asia, but the large rodents were hunted to near-extinction in the 1800s. In Hungary, the last beaver was killed in 1865. The species faced a similar fate across Eurasia, and by the beginning of the 20th century, scientists estimated there were only about 1,200 individuals left in eight relic populations.

The species’s fate began to turn around in 1922, when Sweden launched a reintroduction effort. More than 20 European countries eventually followed suit, and by 2011, the population across the continent numbered more than a million individuals. As beavers returned to the Eurasian landscape, scientists started documenting the impacts they made on their surroundings. By building dams, the animals increased water storage, reduced fire damage, and created wetlands that filter agricultural pollutants. They also boosted biodiversity — beaver-built habitats are home to more abundant and diverse species than neighboring areas.
After a 120-year absence, beavers returned to Hungary in 1985, dispersing naturally from a population that had been successfully reintroduced in Austria. Today, scientists estimate more than 3,000 Eurasian beavers live in the country, including the industrious individual Máté photographed as it engineered a richer ecosystem in Kiskunsag National Park.

More Winners of BigPicture Photography Competition 2022

Human/Nature Finalist
"Embryology." (Courtesy of Jaime Culebras)
"Embryology." Courtesy of Jaime Culebras
Winged Life Winner
"Frame Within a Frame." (Courtesy of Sitaram May)
"Frame Within a Frame." Courtesy of Sitaram May
Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora Winner
"Hidden Beauty." (Courtesy of Tom St George)
"Hidden Beauty." Courtesy of Tom St George
Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora Winner
"The Stoat’s Game." (Courtesy of Jose Grandío)
"The Stoat’s Game." Courtesy of Jose Grandío
Aquatic Life Winner
"After the Fall." (Courtesy of David Slater)
"After the Fall." Courtesy of David Slater
Aquatic Life Winner
"Into the Light." (Courtesy of Pål Hermansen)
"Into the Light." Courtesy of Pål Hermansen
Aquatic Life Finalist
"Shooting Star." (Courtesy of Tony Wu)
"Shooting Star." Courtesy of Tony Wu
This gallery was originally published in bioGraphic, an independent magazine about nature and conservation powered by the California Academy of Sciences, and media partner of the BigPicture Photography Competition.
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Epoch Inspired Staff
Epoch Inspired Staff
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Epoch Inspired staff cover stories of hope that celebrate kindness, traditions, and triumph of the human spirit, offering valuable insights into life, culture, family and community, and nature.
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