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 of 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

Other winning photos included Junji Takasago's beautiful picture of flamingos in the AndesA mountain range running along the western side of South America. and Daniel Nunez's 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 some of these photos draw attention to serious problems. The flamingos are in danger because they live close to one of Bolivia's biggest lithiumA soft, silvery metal. mines. 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 shows New Zealand's whale population recovering after almost becoming extinct.

Photographer Ben Szekely believes that photos are the best way to make people care about the Earth.

They also correct the way animals are shown in films and books. "We've turned pandas into goofy, cartoonish characters," says another photographer, Ami Vitale. "But that's not actually how they are at all. It's a creature that's very elusiveDifficult to find. , quiet and solitary."

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 because we see extraordinary pictures every day. But the kind of TV programmes that David Attenborough presents can have a lasting impact.