Winners Of The 2017 Nat Geo Nature Photographer Of The Year Contest Will Take Your Breath Away

National Geographic has just announced the results of its prestigious 2017 Nature Photographer of the Year contest (2016 here), and the winning shots are the perfect celebration of Mother Earth. 11,000 photos were submitted, competing in four categories: wildlife, landscapes, aerials, and underwater.

The grand-prize winner will receive $7,500 and their winning image will appear in an upcoming issue of National Geographic magazine. Also, one first-place winner will be selected from each of the four categories, all of them earning $2,500. To feed your passion for the living world, Bored Panda has collected some of our favorite shots from the competition, presenting them together with its prizewinners. Scroll down to take a closer look at nature and upvote the images you liked most.

#1 Grand Prize Winner: Face To Face In A River In Borneo, Jayaprakash Joghee Bojan

A male orangutan peers from behind a tree while crossing a river in Borneo, Indonesia. Rampant palm oil cultivation threatens this critically endangered ape, forcing the normally arboreal species to resort to unusual behavior—such as wading through crocodile-infested rivers—in order to survive.

#2 Pied Falconet Family, Kant Liang

Pied Falconet is a species of bird of prey in the family Falconidae. They're very small .

#3 The Lion In The Sea Of Flowers, Ge Xiao

Early in the morning, the young male lion came to the dense flower sea, and he felt very satisfied. Swinging his head in the breeze, I took the picture.

#4 One Happy Seal Model, Lars Lykke

Went to the very north of Denmark, skagen, at sunrise and found this willing model.

#5 Mother Natures Camo, Cole Frechou

it took me a moment to see it's not an aerial photo of a mountain covered by forests but a crocodile covered in moss

#6 There Is Always Room For One More, Eivor Kuchta

How many Mountain Goats can fit on this rock, if you start stacking them on top of each other? Mount Evans, Colorado, USA

#7 Stealthy Eyes, Melissa Stevens

Ever get the feeling you're being watched? The hair on the back of your neck starts to stand on end, you're checking your surroundings, you look up to see the glorious mountain beast and stare into the soul of this amazing creature while he's carefully analyzing your every move...

#8 Liquid Bear, Mike Korostelev

Bear from the water Kamchatka, Russia

#9 Tornado, Anuar Patjane Floriuk

Bigeye Trevally forming a "tornado" at Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico
. A few years ago, local fisherman decided to stop fishing and bet all on ecotourism. That bet was successful economically, socially, and ecologically speaking. What used to be an almost lifeless place now has a complete life chain, even bull sharks are back and orcas come and visit often. Cabo Pulmo is a true example that by letting the ocean recover, it will do so by itself.

#10 Crowded, Martin Olson

As the only wild animals being herded in Sweden, once a year the reindeers of the different communities are gathered and separated by their owners and moved to better pastures for the winter. Since thousands of animals are gathered and then divided into handling facility sections, the process may take several days.