Five stunning photos of animals that captured hearts        

The best: quoted by the Persian language media; Finding the snow leopard, also known as the "Ghost of the Mountain" in the Himalayas is not an easy task. German photographer Sascha Fonseca spent three years trying to capture the image of this leopard in such a beautiful sunset with a pink and purple sky.

An elusive snow leopard, winner of wildlife photography of the year / Sascha Fonseca

Expressing how proud she was to win the British Natural History Museum's public vote, Sasha said: "Photography can connect people to wildlife and encourage them to appreciate the unseen beauty of the natural world. I believe that a greater understanding of wildlife leads to greater care for it."

Photographing snow leopards is not an easy task due to their rarity and their camouflage and hiding in remote and rugged habitats. This photo was taken in front of Ladakh mountains in northern India.

Who were the winners of the wildlife photographer of the year award?
60,466 nature photography fans voted for Sasha's snow leopard picture to be on the first place. But a few other images have also been considered for last year's Natural History Museum shortlist.

Polar bear among flowers / Martin Gregus

Martin Gregos, the photographer of this picture, was watching a bear cub on the shore of Hudson Bay that day, which looked up from the flowers every few minutes to see its mother.

Wanting to capture the world from the cub's point of view, Martin placed his camera in an underwater enclosure to protect it from bears on the surface. He patiently waited at a safe distance with a remote shutter release and finally captured this photo.

A tiger and a motherless baby monkey / Igor Altuna

This astonishing picture of a leopard holding a monkey in its teeth captures nature. This leopard has killed and mauled a mother monkey in South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, but the baby monkey is still alive and clinging to its mother.

Spanish photographer Altona said the leopard calmly returned to its cub after the hunt, and the cub played with it for more than an hour before killing the baby monkey, almost as if it had been given live prey as a hunting lesson.

A magnificent lion in the Masai Mara / MARINA CANO

It was late in the afternoon when Spanish photographer Marina Cano saw the lion proudly resting in the Masai Mara of Kenya. All around the lion, the land was black because the local Maasai herders had burned the grasslands to allow new grass to grow.

Marina, the photographer of this picture, wanted to capture the majestic and defiant look of this lion against the dark background. So he lowered the camera from his vehicle to take a portrait of her.

It is not difficult to understand why this photo has attracted people.

The intimacy of two kind foxes / Brittany Crossman

On a cold day on the north shore of Prince Edward Island in Canada, a pair of red foxes caress each other in an intimate manner. Red fox mating season is in the winter and it is common to see them together before mating in the area.

This particular moment is one of Brittany Crosman's favorite images. According to him, it is one of the most emotional moments he has seen between adult foxes.