Bengaluru's Vidyun R Hebbar won the first prize in the '10 Years and Under' category of the Natural History Museum's 'Wildlife Photographer of the Year' competition for his photo of a tent spider.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. This year, the competition received entries from 95 countries.
French underwater photographer and biologist Laurent Ballesta, on Thursday won the overall first prize. His "extraordinary" photo of the mating ritual of camouflage groupers grabbed him the accolade.
The description of Hebbar's photograph on the official website of the Natural History Museum reads, "Exploring his local theme park, Vidyun found an occupied spider’s web in a gap in a wall. A passing tuk-tuk (motorised rickshaw) provided a backdrop of rainbow colours to set off the spider’s silk creation."
It further reads, "Tent spiders are tiny – this one had legs spanning less than 15 millimetres. They weave non-sticky, square-meshed domes, surrounded by tangled networks of threads that make it difficult for prey to escape. Instead of spinning new webs every day, the spiders repair existing ones."
Here's the picture:
Dome Home by Vidyun R Hebbar | https://www.nhm.ac.uk/wpy/
These and other winning photographs will be displayed at the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at London's Natural History Museum on Friday, October 15.