TO CELEBRATE ITS 50th anniversary of their Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, the Natural History Museum in Britain and BBC Worldwide has launched a People’s Choice award.

The institutions have already whittle down 41,000 entries to just 50 images and want the public to choose its favourite.

The contest hopes to “provide a global showcase of the very best nature photography”, with the two bodies priding themselves on “revealing and championing the diversity of life on Earth”.

The winners will appear in a Natural History Museum exhibition and BBC Wildlife Magazine.

To see the full collection (and you should), head over to the website. But, to start you off, here’s a smaller selection of our favourites.

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By Marsel van Oosten

Kings into the dark

By Stanley Leroux, France

Old cloths

By Claudio Contreras Koob, Mexico

Innocence Betrayed

By Hilary O’Leary, Zimbabwe

Feel safe

By Juan Carlos Mimo Perez, Spain

Dante’s Inferno

By Karen Lunney, Australia

Winter hares

By David Tipling, UK

Stretching

By Stephan Tuengler, Germany

Shoulder Check

By Henrik Nilsson, Canada

Sentry

By Neil Aldridge