The scene is bizarre. The cactus bees are clustered so tightly that it is impossible to count them. Somewhere in the middle of the scrum is a female bee with whom all the males want to mate - and more are on their way. All along the desert sand, the same thing is happening - but without this photograph we would have no idea about it.

Karine Aigner's picture has just won top prize in this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. "I've been working on a ranch in South Texas for years, and I just happened on the location," she says. "I saw all these little 'volcanoes' in the ground - the individual burrows dug by the females to make their nests.¹

"I had to spend quite a bit of time on my belly in the dirt."

Tomorrow, the judges' favourites will go on show at London's Natural History Museum. Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn from Thailand was the 16-year-old winner of the Young Wildlife Photographer category with a close-up of a whale's mouth.²

The Natural Artistry category was won by Junji Takasago's exquisiteDelicately beautiful. It derives from a Latin word meaning "chosen with care". picture of flamingos in the AndesA mountain range running along the western side of South America.. Daniel Nunez took the Wetlands - The Bigger Picture prize for his drone shot of algaeA simple plant that grows in or on water. filling the edge of a lake in GuatemalaThe most populous country in Central America with 17.6 million people. .

But the beauty of some of these photos veils a worrying truth. The flamingos live close to one of Bolivia's biggest lithiumA soft, silvery metal. mines, meaning that their future is threatened. And the algae in Lake Amatitlan is the result of pollution.

Happily, there is hope too. Richard Robinson's photo of a whale with its new calf was taken off New Zealand, where the whale population is recovering after being almost hunted to extinction.

Photographer Ben Szekely argues that only nature itself has done more than photos to inspire care for the Earth. He gives the example of Ansel Adams(1902 - 1984), an American photographer famous for his black and white images of the American West., whose landscapes alerted people to environmental problems early in the 20th Century.

According to photojournalist Ami Vitale, photos also correct the way animals are portrayed in films and books. "We've turned pandas into goofy, cartoonish characters, but that's not actually how they are at all. It's a creature that's very elusive, quiet and solitary."

Another photographer, Clement Kiragu, hopes that beautiful images will make some people say: "You know what? These creatures deserve to be saved... they deserve to be here as much as we do!"

Yes: It gives us a much greater understanding of animals we might never see otherwise. It opens people's eyes to the wonders of nature and makes them realise that we must all do our bit to save the environment.

No: Wildlife photography makes us feel detached from nature and think we can just sit back and enjoy it from afar. Only by seeing real animals in the wild can we begin to understand their importance to the planet.

Or... Still photographs make very little difference when we see extraordinary pictures every day. But the kind of TV programmes that David Attenborough presents can have a lasting impact.