Mashable has a selection of a readers’ favorite: the finalists of the annual Comedy Wildlife Photo contest. Their article can be seen by clicking on the screenshot below, and the notes just below direct you to the contest website where you can vote for your favorite.
Founded by Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam and supported by wildlife conservation nonprofit The Born Free Foundation, the competition selects a collection of finalists from a host of images snapped across the globe, all of which capture nature at its most ridiculous.
Winners will be announced on Oct. 22, and you can even vote for your favourite on the website.
Here’s a small selection of my favorites, but there are many more in both places. Thanks to the several readers who directed me to the sites.
The credits are at the bottom of the photos.
Talk to the claw!
Oops. . . 
The budgie with its claw out (it is a budgie, isn’t it?) made me think of The Supremes singing “Stop! In the Name of Love”:
If it’s a bread fan, then it’s a budgie: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=orYr_dVnb48
I’ll be sure to bring a boombox and a tape of “Baby I’ma Want You” on my next trip to the budgie shop. Maybe they’ll sell me a live one this time.
Then again, that soporific tune might send the the poor budgie pining for the fjords; it always does me. 🙂
Yes, Budgie weren’t the world’s greatest band, although the title of one of their albums is strangely prophetic, what with the UK government about to vote on legislation that its own ministers accept will break international law: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Were_Brittania_I%27d_Waive_the_Rules
Great photos!
The two I like best:
1) The juvenile langur having the best fun in the world using the adults’ tails as a swing. Human children, especially the little ones, wear the same gape-mouth smile of being thrilled when they’re on swings.
2) the “bug-eyed” mayfly.
I’d call it a parakeet? That said, my nearly eighteen-year-old daughter only learned the difference between a budgie and a gerbil a worryingly short time ago so species identification clearly isn’t a family strength! (But I had a pet gerbil as a kid, so she can’t blame me for her ignorance, at least on this occasion.)
Oops, that was meant to be a reply to Ken at #1!
I believe the birds are ring-necked parakeets from the foothills of the Himalayas. Escapees they are all over parts of England, e.g. tourists hand feed them in London’s St James’ Park.
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The “talk to the foot” bird is a Ring-necked (alternatively known as Rose-ringed) Parakeet, native to Asia but widely naturalised and now one of the commonest birds in London. The “bug” is a Damselfly ( not a mayfly).
Thanks for the correction on the identity of the insect. I misremembered from the info about the photo, that I saw in the Guardian yesterday, and didn’t go back to check; now I see the eyes are distinctive, not like mayfly eyes.
However, I most certainly did not call it a “bug.” Your eyes deceive you, confirmation bias at play as to my entomological ignorance. I wrote “bug-eye” (though should have written “bug-eyed”) and put that phrase in quotation marks precisely to signal that I was engaging in word play that was lost on you in your zeal to turn everything I said there into woefully ignorant bullshit.
I’m chortling in my joy.
Very good stuff!
Natural history mixed with funny anthropomorphic coincidences. What’s not to like?
Lightened my mood today – thanks!