One of the world’s most prestigious nature photography exhibits is currently open, featuring awe-inspiring images.

From fascinating animal behaviour to breath-taking wild landscapes, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is made up of winning entries from the open annual competition.

This year was the most competitive to date, attracting almost 50,000 entries from professionals and amateurs across 95 countries.

Judged by a panel of international experts, the winning images were selected for their creativity, originality and technical excellence.

The exhibition features 100 images that reveal the astonishing diversity of life on our planet, from urban foxes to mountain hares, exhibited on sleek backlit panels.

Out of the collection 17 will be on display at the Natural History Museum at Tring until January 22, 2017- the London display is open until September 2017.

Paul Kitching, head of the Tring museum, says: “We are excited to be able to share this year’s category winners from the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, here in Tring.

“The beautiful back-lit winning images look really impressive and will offer visitors a free taste of the atmospheric experience of the full exhibition at our Natural History Museum in London.”

An international panel of judges named American Tim Laman Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 for his image Entwined Lives, depicting an orangutan climbing a fig tree above the Indonesian rainforest.

Gideon Knight, 16, from London took home the grand title for Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 for his image The Moon and The Crow featuring a crow silhouetted against the moon in a London Park.

Other impressive images in the free exhibition at Tring include Tony Wu’s Snapper party, which shows the dramatic spawning of a red snapper shoal, and Nayan Khanolkar’s Alley cat. Taken in a Mumbai suburb, the image shows a leopard creeping between people’s homes at night.

For more details visit: nhm.ac.uk/tring or nhm.ac.uk/wpy.