After wading through nearly 10,000 photo submissions from photographers in 108 countries, judges for the 11th annual Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards ended up with a shortlist of 40 photographs, three portfolio entries, and 10 videos.
Then on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, they announced the winner: Mark Meth-Cohn’s “High Five,” which shows a “dancing gorilla skipping through a forest clearing,” as the Comedy Wildlife Awards put it on their announcement Tuesday night on their home page.
the story behind the photo
Meth-Cohn took the photo in Rwanda’s Virunga Mountains in Rwanda after spending four days searching for gorillas.
“On this particular day, we came across a large family group known as the Amahoro family, they were gathered in a forest clearing where the adults were calmly foraging while the youngsters were enthusiastically playing,” said Meth-Cohn, as reported by photography website PetaPixel.
“One young male was especially keen to show off his acrobatic flair: pirouetting, tumbling, and high kicking. Watching his performance was pure joy, and I’m thrilled to have captured his playful spirit in this image.”
As could be expected, winners of the various categories took home a number of Nikon cameras as prizes.
The awards ceremony’s organizers insisted that no AI or digital manipulation was allowed for any image or video submitted to the contest, and Nikon said that it didn’t much care whether entrants used Nikon cameras to submit photos or cameras by competing brands. The competition was open to all.
“Comedy Wildlife was born from the need for a wildlife photography competition that was light-hearted, unpretentious and importantly, could make a difference to animals and our natural world,” reads the official website.
To that end, every year they donate 10 percent of their total net revenue to their charity partner, Whitley Fund for Nature. Check out the Whitley Fund’s mission after you’re done flipping through the full list of award finalists.
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