Aside from zoos, roadkill, and the occasional kangaroo punch, we have few opportunities to appreciate the full majesty of mother nature’s untamed creatures. Wildlife photography is the closest we get to experiencing the animal kingdom, and no one captures its beauty and brutality better than the winners of the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.

The UK’s Natural History Museum announced the winners of the 2017 competition this week. They were chosen from more than 50,000 entries submitted from 92 countries, a handful of which are now on display at the London museum.

This year’s top prize was awarded to photojournalist Brent Stirton, who immortalised the heartbreaking scene of a rhino freshly slain and stripped of its horns by poachers in South Africa.

“To make such a tragic scene almost majestic in its sculptural power deserves the highest award,” competition judge Roz Kidman Cox said in a press release. “There is a rawness, but there is also great poignancy and therefore dignity in the fallen giant. It’s also symbolic of one of the most wasteful, cruel and unnecessary environmental crimes, one that needs to provoke the greatest public outcry.”

“The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition isn’t just about beautiful images and technical ability – it is also about provoking and stimulating debate,” said Richard Sabin, the NHM’s Principal Curator of Mammals. “This image is difficult to look at, but what it shows is an inescapable part of the human exploitation of the natural world.”

Fortunately for those with weaker constitutions, the competition wasn’t all doom and gloom and butchered beasts. Daniël Nelson, the 16-year-old grand title winner of the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year category, captured a gleeful gorilla, while Ashleigh Scully, Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the 11-14 Years section, snapped a not-so-cunning fox.

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