{"id":12932,"date":"2022-10-11T23:30:24","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T23:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/2022\/10\/11\/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-frenzied-bee-ball-wins-top-prize\/"},"modified":"2022-10-11T23:30:24","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T23:30:24","slug":"wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-frenzied-bee-ball-wins-top-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/?p=12932","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Frenzied bee ball wins top prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Cactus<\/span>Image source, <\/span>Karine Aigner\/WPY<\/span><\/div>
Image caption, <\/span><\/p>\n

The big buzz: Karine Aigner’s winning picture came at the end of several weeks of shooting<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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By Jonathan Amos<\/p>\n

BBC Science Correspondent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It’s a manic moment as male cactus bees envelop a single female. But who in this amorous scrum will emerge lucky and get to mate with her?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This remarkable picture, captured by Karine Aigner, is the grand title winner in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On one level it’s quite a technical image. It required the use of a macro probe lens to get in close to the very heart of the action.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“I had to spend quite a bit of time on my belly in the dirt,” Karine joked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The American is only the fifth woman to win the top prize in the 58-year history of WPY, as the competition is often called.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It wasn’t something I went looking for. I’ve been working on a ranch in South Texas for years, and I just happened on the location. I saw all these little ‘volcanoes’ in the ground – the individual burrows dug by the females to make their nests,” she told BBC News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Media caption, <\/span><\/p>\n
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Watch: Walking among the cactus bee nests. \u00a9 Karine Aigner<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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Cactus bees, as their name suggests, live on and around cactus plants. The females collect pollen, which they fashion into small balls and store in chambers in the soil. The balls will sustain their larvae until they can surface as adults and continue the reproductive cycle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The picture is fabulous; it’s got so much energy. It’s a proper ‘behaviour’ shot. That’s what you get from invertebrates and that’s why I love them,” said Roz Kidman Cox, who chairs the WPY judges. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“It’s also the composition. What makes the photo complete are the bees coming in from the side. They give you ‘the soundtrack’.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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