Hotshots

Our showcase of the winning entries from the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2024

OVERALL WINNER & WINNER, MAMMALS ‘Stuck Squirrel’ Milko Marchetti, Italy

“The photo was taken in April 2022 at the Podere Pantaleone nature reserve in Bagnacavallo, Italy. The reserve is usually open to the public and schools, but between October and March, it is closed to visitors. In exchange for photographs for educational and promotional purposes, I have access to a fixed hide to photograph passerines, hawks, woodpeckers and squirrels that come to visit the set, which consists of a small lake with the surrounding vegetation.

In Italy generally, but especially in the area where I live in the Po Delta Regional Park, it isn’t easy to see and photograph squirrels as they are quite rare. However, there used to be four specimens in the park and they are quite confident. A few metres from the hide, there’s an old cut tree with a hole in it, which was a former woodpecker’s nest. Here, the squirrels sometimes come out of curiosity to check out the old hollow tree.

I have taken several photos of squirrels in many situations, but the shot I chose to participate in the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards immediately struck me for the strange position assumed by the squirrel that seems to be stuck halfway in the hole in the tree but, in reality, it is the moment in which it detaches the support on its hind legs and enters the hole.

This photo had an effect on me and made me smile at the moment I clicked the button. During my evenings of slideshows and nature videos that I often hold at photography clubs and theatres, the audience always explodes into laughter when I show this photo, so I knew that I had to enter it into the competition.”