19 stunning winners from National Geographic’s Nature Photographer of the Year contest

A photo of sardines migrating off the coast of South Africa has beaten thousands of entries from around the world to become the 2016 National Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year.

The winning photographer – Greg Lecouer – has won £2,000 ($2,500) in prize money and a 10-day trip for two to the Galápagos Islands with National Geographic Expeditions.

A panel of photographers and editors from National Geographic ranked 2016’s most powerful photos of natural phenomena. The competition was split into four categories – Landscapes, Action, Animal Portraits, and Environmental issues.

The photos offer rare insights into the world around us, from a meteor soaring across India’s city skylines to praying mantises dancing on a single vine.

You can see the winning photos across all categories and runners-up below.

Grand Prize Winner and Action Winner — 'Sardine Run,' Greg Lecoeur — Hungry predators feast on migrating sardines off the Wild Coast of South Africa.

Animal Portraits Winner — 'Dragging you deep into the woods!', Varun Aditya — A green vine snake poses for its portrait in the Indian rainforest.

Winner, Landscape — 'Struggle of life,' Jacob Kaptein — A tiny beech tree reaches out above a flooded stream in the Netherlands.

Environmental Issues Winner — 'Life and Death,' Vadim Balakin — This polar bear likely died from starvation, remains like this are becoming a common sight.

Action 2nd Place Winner — 'Approach,' Tori Shea-Ostberg — An EF2 tornado bears down on a home in Wray, Colorado.

Action 3rd Place Winner — 'Changing Fortunes of the Great Egret,' Zsolt Kudich — The graceful great egret was saved from the brink of disappearance, now there are over 3,000 in Hungary alone.

Landscape 2nd Place Winner — 'Wild rink,' Alessandro Gruzza — First snowfall reveals the delicate beauty of this frozen pond in Italy

Landscape 3rd Place Winner — 'Pacific Storm,' Santiago Borja — An isolated cumulonimbus storm is lit by lightening a few miles off the coast of Panama City.

Animal Portraits 2nd Place Winner — 'Proud Momma,' Michael O’Neill — A female peacock bass guards her brood in a Miami, Florida.

Animal Portraits equal 3rd Place Winner — 'Friendship knows no color,' Jose Pesquero Gomez — Conehead mantises dance together on a plant near Madrid, Spain.

Environmental Issues 2nd Place Winner — 'The View Outside Facebook HQ,' Chris McCann — This high-salinity salt pond is located right next to Facebook headquarters, where about 4,000 people work every day.

Environmental Issues 3rd Place Winner — 'Toxic Vanity,' Eleanor Ryder — This is a magnification of plastic particles in eyeliner. Every time we wash these products from our bodies we unknowingly add to the trillions of microplastic particles currently polluting the ocean.

Animal Portraits Honourable Mention— 'Puffin Studio,' Mario Suarez Porras — This closeup of an Atlantic puffin in the rain was taken on Skomer Island, Wales. The island is uninhabited, meaning the birds aren't afraid of humans and photographers can capture every detail.

Animal Portraits Honourable Mention — 'Crow Chasing Puffy Owl,' Chia Boon Oo Lawrence —A crow chases away an Owl from its territory

Action Shot Honourable Mention — 'Jellyfish Feat,' Scot Portelli — Green turtles devour the soft tentacles of a jellyfish, a common food source for the animal, in near New South Wales, Australia.

Environmental Issues Honourable Mention — 'Wildfire at the Beach,' Sergej Chursyn — A young woman look on as firefighters drop water on an approaching forest fire in Mallorca, Spain.

Environmental Issues Honourable Mention — 'American Flowers #1,' Ken Bower — This is an abandoned US military base in Sermersooq, Greenland. The Inuits who live in the area call the rusted aviation fuel barrels "American flowers."

Environmental Issues Honourable Mention — 'No snow, no ice?' Patty Waymire — A solitary bear sits on the edge of one of the Barter Islands, Alaska. There was an unseasonably warm winter this year, posing a threat to the polar bear population.

Landscape Honourable Mention — 'Serendipitous Green Meteor,' Prasenjeet Yadav — This meteor was captured while Yadav was working on a time-lapse project on urbanisation in India. Its colour comes from a combination of the heating of oxygen around the meteor and the mix of minerals ignited as it enters Earth's atmosphere.