Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPOTY) is back with a bang for its 61 st year, having received a record-breaking 60,636 entries that include stunning images taken across the globe, including a bizarre slime-based family portrait, a stark look at the impact of landfill sites, and a wasp that appears to have developed magical abilities. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Winners of the awards will be announced on October 14, but for now, you can have a sneak peek at the Highly Commended images awarded so far.

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If you only took a quick glance at the photograph above, it’d be easy to imagine that Bidyut Kalita had captured a strange new wasp behavior that sees them give up on their wings and adopt brooms

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