The 16 Funniest Wildlife Photos Of 2021 Have Been Announced, And They Just Might Make Your Day

After a long year of picking out finalists, the people behind the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have finally decided upon the winners and the honorable mentions for this year.

The winning entries were revealed on BBC’s ‘The One Show’ in front of millions, which the organizers of the awards said is record-breaking since the launch of the awards in 2015.

This year’s grand-prize winner is “Ouch” by Ken Jensen, introduced as a keen amateur photographer from Blackburn, UK. The photo went up against 7,000 other comedic entries from all over the world.

In particular, Ken’s winning photo is of a golden silk monkey caught in a rather nasty predicament whereby it has slipped on a tightrope and its family jewels have just lost a carat or two.

And while all of us are sending our sympathies to the monkey and its prospective offspring, you gotta admit, it was definitely worth it because the monkey became the winning face of this year's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, and that should surely amount to something in the animal kingdom.

“I was absolutely overwhelmed to learn that my entry had won, especially when there were quite a number of wonderful photos entered,” elaborated Ken Jensen.

“The publicity that my image has received over the last few months has been incredible, it is such a great feeling to know that one’s image is making people smile globally as well as helping to support some fantastically worthwhile conservation causes.”

Besides being titled the grand winner of this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photographer Awards, he also got a chance to partake in a safari in Masai Mara, Kenya, as well as a unique handmade trophy—Alex Walker’s Serian—from the Wonder Workshop in Tanzania, among other goodies.

"I think, over the years, we have covered just about every wild animal—it certainly feels that way when we sift through the initial entries, the variety of species is vast and growing each year as the competition reaches more people," explained Michelle Wood of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards when asked what animals or species are yet to make a debut among winning photographs. "It would be great to see more marine photography, as we know there is so many habitats in our oceans it would be amazing to be able to share that in a compelling and engaging way."

The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards is a contest where wildlife photography meets comedy. Founded by professional photographers Paul Joynson-Hicks MBE and Tom Sullam in 2015 to help promote wildlife conservation through humor.

And promote they do! This year, the contest is supporting Save Wild Orangutans, a non-profit charity that takes a multifaceted approach to orangutan conservation through education, awareness, sustainable living, wildlife investigation and research. The contest donated 10% of all of its net revenue to the charity.

At this point, we just had to ask the people behind the contest whether they thought animals have a sense of humor:

"Of course we’d like to think they do and that they are chuckling along with us, or at least playing with us, but who knows. Maybe they are the same as humans—some do and some don’t," laughed Michelle Wood.

But this year is done and another one begins as the competition prepares for it, so we asked Wood if 2022 will be bigger and better for the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. She had this to say:

"The hard work starts on preparations for 2022 now, and all that will be up for discussion—it might be time to mix it up a bit. There are lots of exciting projects lined up for next year, plus we are hoping to hold an Awards Night for the first time since the pandemic, so plenty to look forward to."

If you’d like to see who else won in the previous years, you can check this out or visit the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards website.

But before you run off, let us know who’s your favorite, or share some of your comedic encounters with wildlife in the comment section below!