National Geographic contributor Karine Aigner earned top prize for her photo of mating cactus bees in Texas.
In southern Texas, cactus bees hatch underground in tiny, pollen-stocked burrows. Males emerge first, and then wait above for the females, which they mob as soon as their heads peek above the soil.
The writhing ball of mating bees is “something people don’t often see,” says Karine Aigner, a Washington, D.C.-based photojournalist and regular National Geographic contributor.
A lot more people will see it now, though. Aigner’s photo, taken in the spring of 2021, has earned her the coveted title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year—an annual award given out by the Natural History Museum in London. (See last year’s winning images.)
Unlike many of her other projects, Aigner came upon cactus bees by accident,