I’ve just caught up with this news which is really sad, not only for Spanish photographer, José Luis Rodriguez but also for the competition itself and all of the other participants. The winning “disqualified” photograph of an Iberian wolf jumping over a gate is suspected to have featured a “trained animal” which the competition rules will not tolerate.  As a result there will be no winner of the 2009 title.

Above: the controversial photograph, “Storybook Wolf” by Spanish photographer José Luis Rodriguez who denies the allegations and has not been able to be contacted.  The photograph was thought to have been captured using a specially set up camera trap so that the wolf would have triggered the shutter by crossing an infrared beam. Rodriguez now faces a lifetime ban.

Below: Other overall winners and runners up

Fergus Gill from Scotland was crowned Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year with his photograph “Clash of the Yellowhammers” taken with a Nikon D300 DSLR from a specially set up hide in his garden. He has beautifully captured two male birds fighting over some oats which Fergus had placed in nearby feeders and the action and colours of the birds markings really stand out against the snowy background.

Sam Rowley’s image of a red deer in Richmond Park won the 11-14 Years section

Danny Green, amateur photographer won the Nature in Black and White category with this photograph entitled “Starling Wave”

Tom Schandy from Norway won the Endangered Wildlife category with this photograph “The Look of a Jaguar”

András Mészáros from Hungary won the Animal Behaviour category with his photograph “Raindrop Refresher” of a red ant sipping from a raindrop on a mallow petal.

Rob Palmer’s “Opportunistic Snatch” won him the Animal Behaviour award with this shot of a bald eagle snatching a red-winged blackbird

Joe McDonald’s “Ethiopian Mountain King” photograph was runner up in Animal Portraits.  “In the evening light, his mane appears like a golden shawl. ‘He was compellingly, strikingly beautiful,’ says Joe.”

The best 100 images in the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year will go on show at the Natural History Museum in London

The search for the Veolia Environement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010 has begun

The closing date is 5 March 2010 and the fee for an adult to enter the competition is 20 British Pounds and for more information please visit the site here