Lion cubs are rarely anything other than adorable, but on occasion, they may also be humorous to the point that someone will receive an award for their professional photography.
This was the case with American photographer Jennifer Hadley, who was awarded the top prize at the 2022 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards and the top prize in the “Land” category of the competition. Her photograph, titled “Not so cat-like reflexes”. It was of a 3-month-old lion cub which suffered a hilariously picturesque crash from a tree after one of his first-ever efforts at climbing. The shot was taken after the cub made one of his first-ever attempts at climbing.
According to what she had to say about the photograph:
“This 3-month-old cub and his sibling were in a tree. The other lionesses were in other trees and on the ground. He wanted to get down and walked all over the branches looking for the right spot and finally just went for it. It was probably his first time in a tree and his descent didn’t go so well. He was just fine though after landing on the ground. He got up and ran off with some other cubs.”
A second photograph taken by Hadley and titled “Talk to the Fin,” which depicted a penguin ignoring its friend, was selected as the winner of the People’s Choice prize in the competition.
As Hadley explains about the power of luck for her prize-winning photos,
- “I think part of what makes this contest great is that most of these photos probably happen by complete accident and that was certainly the case with the lion cub falling out of the tree,”
She also mentioned that nobody in the safari van she was traveling in had anticipated the scene that she was able to photograph.
“No one expected this to happen and of course we were concerned for his safety but happily as cats do, he righted himself just in time and landed on all fours and ran off with his siblings,”
The Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards can become quite competitive; judges at this year’s event had to go through around 5000 photographs taken by photographers from 85 nations. Hadley was fortunate to win both of these awards.
And what did Jennifer Hadley get for making such accurate predictions? She was awarded a hand-crafted trophy and a fully-paid vacation to the Masai Mara National Reserve for one week, presumably so that she might try her luck once again at capturing additional spectacular (and maybe adorable) animal photographs.
