The scene is one of the most bizarre imaginable. 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 her the 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 mouth² and a sardine leaping to escape it.

"Somehow the sardine jumped in the boat," he says. "I was lucky. I got close in the boat and the whale stayed above the water for about a minute."

The Natural Artistry category was won by Junji Takasago's exquisite picture of flamingos in the AndesA mountain range running along the western side of South America., reflected in a lake. 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, such as sewage from Guatemala City.

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.

In his blog, 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 early 20th Century landscapes alerted people to environmental problems at a time when industrialisationA period of social and economic change that transforms an agricultural society into an industrial one. was at its height.

"The world's moving at such a fast pace now that we need potent photography to stop us in our tracks," says Jamie Joseph, a campaigner against rhino-poaching. "Visual storytelling is the difference between being heard or being forgotten."

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 can transform perceptions "and start convincing some people that 'You know what? These creatures deserve to be saved: these are the creatures we share the planet with - and they deserve to be here as much as we do!'"

Yes: It gives us a much greater understanding of animals we might never see. 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 AttenboroughAn English broadcaster and natural historian known for his wildlife documentaries. presents can have a lasting impact.