A photograph of an orangutan climbing a wild fig tree in the Indonesian rain forest was awarded the top prize in the London History Museum's 52nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
American biologist Tim Laman, who has been photographing apes in the wild for years, beat almost 50,000 entries from 95 countries to claim first place title with his photograph "Entwined Lives." The photograph will be on display with 99 other shots at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit, which opened Oct. 21.
Laman, who is also a National Geographic contributor, told an audience in London on Wednesday that he'd wanted to get a picture like Entwined Lives for many years.
Laman caught the male orangutan's scramble to reach figs at the top of a 100-foot thick tree in Borneo's Gunung Palung National Park. According to the London History Museum, Laman spent three days climbing up and down the tree by a rope, placing several GoPro cameras in position to capture the orangutan. He then controlled the cameras remotely to get a wide-angle shot of the jungle and a shot of the orangutan's face from above.
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