Photos taken in two of Kenya's famous game reserves captured global attention and were named among the 49 top photos of the year.
The 49 photos will be featured in the December 2022 National Geographic (NatGeo) issue.
In the ranking, the two photos scooped positions 19 and 24.
One of the photos at position 19 was taken in the Masai Mara National reserve by Jen Guyton, a photographer and ecologist.
Guyton, a PhD holder in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has majored in the study and photography of wildlife in Africa for several decades.
The photo captures a spotted hyena nicknamed Palazzo submissively laying her ears back as Moulin Rouge, the clan's dominant female at the time, towers over her.
Also, the spotted hyena's cub peers between them. The photo was reportedly captured by an infrared camera.
The second photo, ranked 24, was taken at Amboseli National Park by Nichole Sobecki, a photographer and filmmaker.
Sobecki has won several awards for her focus on humanity's distraught, intimate, and ultimately unbreakable connection to the natural world.
It captured researchers taking samples from a tranquilised baboon named Olduvai before he was released unharmed into the wild.
Notably, since 1971, scientists have continually studied Amboseli's baboons for clues on ageing.
A photo from Spain by Carsten Peter scooped the first position. It captured the cracks in La Palma's Cumbre Vieja ridge that set off destructive volcanic eruptions lasting three months in 2021.
At least 132 photographers across the globe sent out 2,238,899 sample photos for the competition.
