A young Estonian photographer, Evalotta Zacek, has become a finalist in the Natural History Museum’s prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition with a photo of an Estonian hedgehog.
Zacek became a finalist in the competition’s “10 Years and Under” category with her picture of a hedgehog crossing the road in Estonia.
According to the Natural History Museum, Zacek was out for the evening on one of the family’s “animal drives”, looking for deer and foxes at the edge of a dusky forest. “They stopped the car to allow this wandering hedgehog to cross, and ‘in return it posed for a photo’. Evalotta likes the unusual angle of this shot – and climbed into a ditch to get it,” the museum said.
“Hedgehogs can travel over a kilometre on their nocturnal wanderings to forage for food such as beetles, slugs and other invertebrates. They are an integral part of Estonia’s exceptionally rich wildlife. But hedgehogs are getting rarer: this family of keen wildlife watchers hardly see them anymore,” the museum added.
The picture was taken using the Nikon D7100 camera and a Nikkor lens.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year, held since 1964, is the largest wildlife photography competition in the world.
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Cover: “Road hog” by Evalotta Zacek (National History Museum).
