37 Pictures of Majestic Animals Being Incorrigible Goofs

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards show a different, more relatable side of nature

Jack Shepherd
Published in
5 min readSep 24, 2020

--

Two brown bear cubs pose, one looking serious and the other collapsing with a wide open mouth and his paws in the air
Photo: Yarin Klein; all photos via Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards 2020

For the last three years, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards (CWPA) has been single-mindedly focused on showcasing a profoundly underserved aspect of wildlife photography: Pictures that show the goofy side of our animal friends. It turns out that, contrary to what National Geographic might want you to think not every wild animal wakes up looking like their Instagram photos.

In fact, for every picture where these guys are being majestic and proud and flat-out awe-inspiring, there’s one where they’re just as awkward and absurd as we are. And the CWPA is committed to uncovering the very best of those moments while highlighting an important message of wildlife conservation in partnership with The Born Free Foundation. Here are some of the extremely relatable finalists from this year’s awards.

A raccoon recovering from a big night out.

A raccoon’s back legs and striped tail are pictured jutting straight out of a seemingly small hole in a tree
Photo: Charlie Davidson

A tern taking a moment to file her nails.

--

--

Tenderly
Tenderly

Published in Tenderly

A vegan magazine that’s hopefully devoted to delicious plants, liberated animals, and leading a radical, sustainable, joyful life

Jack Shepherd
Jack Shepherd

Written by Jack Shepherd

I have a newsletter about crossword puzzles and a podcast about rom-coms. Formerly editorial director @BuzzFeed. Email: JackAShepherd at gmail

Responses (43)