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Scientists took these award-winning photos of nature, and they're absolutely stunning

Cody Sullivan

2015-07-30T19:35:02Z

Most of us never get the chance to travel the world and take in all that nature has to offer.

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Luckily for those of us chained to a desk, there are talented photographers who do have that privilege — and also happen to be scientists.

Each year the scientific journal BMC Ecology hosts a photography competition to hand out awards to scientists for their best photos of the natural world.

BMC Ecology Greater Adjutant Stork in Guwahati City, India

BMC Ecology's contest this year didn't disappoint. Scroll through the collection of Earth's amazing landscapes and creatures below.

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We'll start with the highly commended photos. These critically endangered greater bamboo lemurs live in Madagascar and consume ten times the amount of cyanide that would be lethal to similarly sized mammals. Scientists don't know how they do it.

BMC Ecology Greater bamboo lemur in Madagascar

This Amblypygi, a distant relative of the spider, is eating a giant golden silk orb-weaving spider. They live in Amazonian Ecuador, one of the most biodiverse areas on land.

BMC Ecology Ecuadorian Amblypygi feeding on the giant golden silk orb weaving spider

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The Mozambique tilapia carry their babies around in their mouth after hatching. This photo captured a baby tilapia hanging out on its mother's lip.

BMC Ecology Mozambique tilapia with yolk sac fry resting on lower lip

This cold water sea garden is off the coast of Australia's Yorke Peninsula. A basket star is surrounded by blue ascidians, sponges, and algae.

BMC Ecology South Australia’s secret gardens

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More than one-third of amphibian species are threatened worldwide due to human activity and the devastating disease chytridiomycosis. Here a threatened Nicaraguan cross-branded tree fog sits in someone's hand.

BMC Ecology The threatened Nicaragua cross banded tree frog

South Africa's long tongued fly can have long, straw-like noses up to 5 centimeters long. They are the only pollinator for over 20 species of long-tube flowers.

BMC Ecology South Africa's long tongue fly

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A noddy tern parent and chick guard their nest on Heron Island in Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Noddy terns normally have only one baby each breeding season.

BMC Ecology Noddy tern chick and parent on Heron Island, Great Barrier Reef

The stingless bee acts as a pollinator in Malaysia as bees worldwide decline.

BMC Ecology Stingless bee pollinating in Malaysia

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This Oriental Rat Snake makes its way through a Javanese rice paddy in search of food. These snakes have been intensely harvested for their skins.

BMC Ecology Oriental Rat Snake near paddy field worker in Central Java, Indonesia

The more the ant moved, the more entrapped it became in the carnivorous plant's tentacles. These plants, Drosera rotundifolia, are widespread in Japan's wetlands.

BMC Ecology Ant entangled in tentacles of carnivorous plant in Japan

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Buffalo and hippos are usually bad-tempered and aggressive. But in Masai Mara, Kenya they shared a puddle.

BMC Ecology Hippo and buffalo in Kenya

Asiatic black bears are found in Pakistan and parts of the Himalayas. And as you can see, they like to be playful.

Playful bears in Pakistan

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Weaver ants take a sugary substance from this Lycaenidae caterpillar, in return they protect the caterpillar from predators in India.

BMC Ecology Weaver ants and caterpillar in India

Madagascar's baobab trees drop their fruit into shallow waters filled with water lilies. Local people call the baobab tree “renala” meaning “mother of the forest.”

BMC Ecology Waterlilies in Madagascar

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This pregnant bat flew from Jalisco, Mexico to the Sonoran desert to join hundreds of thousands of other female bats to give birth in a "maternity cave."

BMC Ecology Pregnant bat in Mexico

This image won the Theoretical Ecology and Models category for depicting the range of California condors. The red areas are the core range while the outlying parts of the birds' range are white. Images like this help people understand how wind farms and bird ranges can overlap.

BMC Ecology GPS tracking data from a wild Californian condor

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The Conservation Ecology and Biodiversity Research winning photograph displays the wide diversity that exists in rice.

BMC Ecology Diversity of short grain rice

This photograph illustrates how Arizona's Sonoran desert alive deserts can be, and it won the Landscape Ecology and Ecosystems category. Frequently deserts are considered barren, but there's plenty of life to be found within a desert.

BMC Ecology Sonoran desert in North America

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This photograph of a cape mountain zebra grazing on finger grass along South Africa's Cape of Good Hope won the Community, Population and Macroecology category. Zebras can be picky with their finger grass, they prefer it when it's between 5 and 15 centimeters tall.

BMC Ecology Grazing zebra in South Africa

This Lampyridae beetle uses its antenna to attract mates, this photograph of their branching antennas won the Behavior and Physiological Ecology category.

BMC Ecology Lampyridae beetle smelling in central Chile

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A campanotus ant patrols a young Coccoloba cereifera plant. These plants, which live in a 26km square area in South East Brazil, have their nectaries on the outside of their flowers which the ants protect from predators. This image tied for Runner-Up.

BMC Ecology Camponotus ant patrolling a young leaf in Brazil

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The other Runner-Up is this shot of endangered Greater Adjutant Storks in an Indian dump. As their native habitats get destroyed the storks have begun foraging for food in urban disposal sites.

BMC Ecology Greater Adjutant Stork in Guwahati City, India

This Palestinian sun bird navigates a thistles spines to get a meal. Male and female sun birds look nothing alike, the males are bright blue while the females, like this one, are this greenish color. This shot was the overall winner.

BMC Ecology Palestinian sunbird feeding in Saudi Arabia

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