This year's category winners were chosen from 49,000 entries, received from 86 countries, and all went forward to compete for the title of overall winner, which went to Russia's Sergey Gorshkov for his picture The Embrace, which shows a Siberian tiger scent-marking a fir tree in a forest.

"It's a scene like no other, a unique glimpse of an intimate moment deep in a magical forest," said Roz Kidman-Cox, chair of the judging panel. "Shafts of low winter sun highlight the ancient fir tree and the coat of the huge tigress as she grips the trunk in obvious ecstasy and inhales the scent of tiger on resin, leaving her own mark as her message.

"It's also a story told in glorious color and texture of the comeback of the Amur tiger, a symbol of the Russian wilderness."

The Amur tiger population is threatened by poaching and logging, so Tim Littlewood, the museum's executive director of science, said the image was one of hope.

"Through the unique emotive power of photography, we are reminded of the beauty of the natural world and our shared responsibility to protect it," he said.