BRITAIN: Gerhard Schulz, wildlife photographer of the year, would rather have been roaming the savannah than hanging around in a zoo. But sometimes needs must in the search for the perfect picture, and on this occasion, as he hovered around a lowland gorilla's compound, he was about to be richly rewarded.
"I had been watching and waiting for hours as queues of people walked past the cage," he said. "Then suddenly there was just this young boy on his own, pressed up against the glass, staring in awe and I snapped the picture."
"'Gorilla and Boy' has captured a moment when the two primates appear caught in thought," said judge Rosamund Kidman-Cox.
Schulz, from Germany, whose picture beat 20,500 entries from more than 60 countries to take the prestigious award, has been photographing wildlife around the world for more than 16 years after being inspired while on a trip to Kenya in 1987.
The competition, organised by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine for 20 years, attracts competitors of all ages.