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A male kottigehar dancing frog calling to attract a female by waving its foot (Agumbe, Western Ghats, India)

This tiny frog (Micrixalus kottigeharensis) breeds during the monsoon period along small forest streams. Traditionally male frogs rely on their croaking to attract females, but here they struggle to be heard over the noise of fast-flowing water. This frog, no bigger than your thumb, climbs onto a small stone and waves its foot. Global warming will negatively impact different aspects of frogs’ lives, including their immune and breeding systems, their habitat and embryo hatching process.

Photograph: Yashpal Rathore/Naturepl.com/LDY Agency

“Nature Under Threat”: The Winning Images Of The Cop26 Photographic Competition 2021

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Tahafa, a male humpback whale calf with injured pectoral fin and scarred body, with its mother (Vava’u, Tonga, Pacific Ocean)

The humpback whale calf (Megaptera novaeangliae) pictured here was attacked not long after he was born. His right pectoral fin has a large rip in the middle. His dorsal fin was almost cut off, and there were large chunks of flesh missing from several areas of the young whale’s body. No one saw the actual attack, so it is not possible to say with certainty how the calf was injured.

Photograph: Tony Wu/naturepl.com/LDY Agency

“Nature Under Threat”: The Winning Images Of The Cop26 Photographic Competition 2021

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An adult humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) diving in the Great Bear rainforest (British Columbia, Canada)

The intricate mosaic of forests, islands, fjords and mountains in these coastal regions are incredibly rich and biodiverse and support a wealth of wildlife. Pacific salmon that feed in the Bering Sea migrate back to their natal rivers in British Columbia to spawn and die. In autumn the corpses litter the river margins and adjacent forests as bears, wolves and other predators feed on the bounty. The decaying salmon fertilise the entire forest.

Photograph: Nick Garbutt/Naturepl.com/LDY Agency

“Nature Under Threat”: The Winning Images Of The Cop26 Photographic Competition 2021

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A greater bird of paradise (Paradisaea apoda) displaying in Badigaki Forest, Wokam Island (Aru Islands, Indonesia)

Found here in Aru and on adjacent New Guinea, the greater bird of paradise represents about 40 different species of birds of paradise that depend on intact rainforest across the New Guinea region spanning eastern Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. With more than 80% of forest cover still intact, this region represents the largest remaining block of rainforest in the entire Asia-Pacific.

Photograph: Tim Laman/Naturepl.com/LDY Agency

“Nature Under Threat”: The Winning Images Of The Cop26 Photographic Competition 2021

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A rescued Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla)

Pangolins are threatened by poaching for their meat and scales, which are used in traditional Chinese medicine, and by heavy deforestation of their natural habitats; they are the most trafficked mammals in the world. A series of conservation efforts are under way to save the last remaining wild populations in China. Poaching and trade make it easier for unknown viruses to infect humans, from bats through intermediate hosts such as pangolins.

Photograph: Dong Lei/Naturepl.com/LDY Agency

“Nature Under Threat”: The Winning Images Of The Cop26 Photographic Competition 2021

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A melting ice sheet with massive waterfalls running off it (Austfonna glacier, Norway)

This glacier on Nordaustlandet island in the Svalbard archipelago is Europe’s third-largest glacier by area and volume and with a glacier wall of about 200km, it is an impressive sight. During recent decades, every month has brought new record-high temperatures in the Arctic, and the ice cap on Nordaustlandet is melting at high speed. The meltwater starts as small streams but eventually gathers in larger, almost river-like systems, that finally pour off the steep wall.

Photograph: Roy Mangersnes/naturepl.com/LDY Agency

“Nature Under Threat”: The Winning Images Of The Cop26 Photographic Competition 2021

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A red panda or lesser panda (Ailurus fulgens) in the humid montane mixed forest in Labahe national nature reserve (Sichuan, China)

Actually not a panda but related to raccoons and coatis, the Red panda used to live in broadleaf and mixed forests all along the Himalayas but has been hunted to local extinction in many areas. Its fur is prized for ceremonial local dress and the international fur market. In recent years numbers have recovered thanks to a wide hunting ban, reforestation programmes, increased areas for nature reserves and a government clampdown on illegal trade in wildlife species.

Photograph: Staffan Widstrand/Naturepl.com/LDY Agency

“Nature Under Threat”: The Winning Images Of The Cop26 Photographic Competition 2021

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A scalloped hammerhead shark (Sphyrna lewini) near the surface, off Baja peninsula (Mexico)

Sharks are feared and revered. The chances of being attacked by one of these enigmatic, perfectly evolved predators is virtually nil, yet humans persecute them relentlessly. Tens of millions of sharks are killed around the world every year – to make shark-fin soup, considered a delicacy in China – and many populations have been fished to extinction. As this photo of a critically endangered scalloped hammerhead shows, sharks are beautiful animals – and without them, our ocean ecosystems would collapse.

Photograph: Mark Carwardine/Naturepl.com/LDY Agency

“Nature Under Threat”: The Winning Images Of The Cop26 Photographic Competition 2021