Why this picture was disqualified from a wildlife photo competition

An award winning photograph of an anteater has been disqualified from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition – because the animal is stuffed.

The photograph, taken in Brazil’s Emas National Park, shows the anteater approaching a termite mound and won the Animals in their Environment category last year.

But all is not as it seems. The photographer has been stripped of the award after experts concluded it was likely the animal it features is a taxidermy specimen.

The Natural History Museum, which runs the international competition, said it had been contacted by anonymous sources who questioned the authenticity of the image.

An investigation examined high resolution images of a taxidermy anteater kept on display at a nearby visitor centre and compared it to the one in the winning image.

Five mammal and taxidermy experts, working independently of each other, all concluded there are elements of the animal’s posture and features, raised tufts of fur and patterns on the neck and head that are too similar for the images to show two different animals.

The museum said it also considered the responses to questions put to the photographer Marcio Cabral, who co-operated fully with the investigation and supplied RAW image files taken before and after the winning shot, none of which included the anteater.

The photographer provided an explanation as to why he had no other images of the anteater, and a witness who claims he saw the live animal, and strongly denies the one in the image is a taxidermy specimen, the museum said.

The Natural History Museum ruled the image broke the rules of the competition, which require entrants not to deceive the viewer or attempt to disguise and/or misrepresent the reality of nature.

Roz Kidman Cox, a member of the 2017 judging panel, said: “I find it disheartening and surprising that a photographer would go to such lengths to deceive the competition and its worldwide following”.

“The competition places great store on honesty and integrity, which is at the heart of the competition.”

In 2009, the overall winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award was disqualified after judges ruled that the wolf photographed jumping over a gate was probably a trained “animal model”.