« The Swarm of Life » (“The Swarm of Life”). This is how Canadian photographer Shane Gross named this photo of tadpoles, for which he won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award on October 8, awarded by the Natural History Museum in London. The jury, which this year decided between 59,228 applications from 117 countries, said in a press release that it had “was captivated by the mix of light, energy and connectivity between the environment and the tadpoles”.
Specializing in marine conservation, Shane Gross took this photo while freediving under the water lilies of Cedar Lake, on Vancouver Island, Canada. These western toad tadpoles, a species found in lakes, rivers and wetlands from California to Alaska, typically begin to transform into toads between four and 12 weeks after hatching, but it is estimated that 99% of them will not survive to adulthood.
Reuse this content
