See the beautiful winners from the Natural world Photographer of the 12 months

BIRDS of a feather flock in combination – and so do those western toad tadpoles, who had been snapped massing underneath lily pads in Cedar Lake on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, via photographer Shane Gross.

Gross, whose surprising symbol The Swarm of Existence gained him the Natural world Photographer of the 12 months 2024 award these days, spent hours snorkelling within the lake’s cold waters to get his shot. He had virtually given up when he came upon that “the tadpole military used to be marching en masse from the deeper, more secure finish of…