National Geographic's 2013 Year in Review is a beautiful interactive site on which one could spend hours and hours exploring many of the most incredible scientific findings, technological advancements, space exploration, geopolitical stories, travel images, adventure scenarios, ancient worlds, human cultures, environmental happenings, animal photography and more from 2013.
I've pulled 20 incredible images of wildlife, birds, insects, amphibians, sea life and reptiles from various categories of their year in review site as well as from their most shared stories of 2013.
From Bears to Blobfish and Fornicating Lions in the Serengeti to Tadpoles underwater, here are my favorite 20 photographs of living creatures from National Geographic's stories in 2013:
A camouflaged screech owl, masterfully disguised perched inside a woodpecker’s nest:
An underwater shot of tadpoles swimming through a jungle of lily stalks in Cedar Lake on Vancouver Island:
An Arctic Fox pup plays with a lemming carcass:
Naturally neon-colored Katydids (thought to e caused by a gene similar to albinism):
The Cassowary, a human-sized flightless bird found in New Guinea and Australia Rain Forests:
Eurasian Otter in The British Isles:
The Leaf-tailed Gecko is a new species found in March of 2013:
Male lion mating with a female lion in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park:
A Mountain-Lion (aka Puma or Cougar) living in the Hollywood Hills (photo by Steve Winter):
The Pinocchio Lizard of Ecuador was thought to be extinct:
Yacare Caiman Crocodilus in Brazil:
A Brown Bear cub rests against a tree in a Finnish boreal forest near the Russian border:
A songbird rescuer in Cyprus uses his saliva to remove sticky plum tree sap from a blackcap’s feather and feet, so that the bird can safely fly when released:
Never revealed before 2013 is this beautiful photo, taken in 1967 by the famed photographer William Albert Allard, of American bison charging through heavy snow in Yellowstone National Park:
Male lion eats his kill in the Serengeti while connecting eye-to-eye with the photographer at close range:
A jaguar stalking and about to kill a caiman crocodile in Mato Grosso, Brazil:
The Pacific blue sea star can regrow itself, so long as it has its central nerve ring intact:
A gray mouse lemur, perched on a finger:
And of course, the generally recognized "Ugliest Animal in the World"- the Blobfish:
The final one is this incredible Grand Prize and Nature Winner photo from NatGeo's photo competition taken by Paul Souders of Seattle, Washington:
above: A polar bear peers up from beneath the melting sea ice on Hudson Bay as the setting midnight sun glows red from the smoke of distant fires during a record-breaking spell of hot weather. The Manitoba population of polar bears, the southernmost in the world, is particularly threatened by a warming climate and reduced sea ice.
See all the National Geographic photo winners from 2013 here
Check out NatGeo's Year In Review site