A young emperor penguin jumps off a 50-foot cliff for its first swim in Atka Bay, Antarctica.
Bertie Gregory/National Geographic
National Geographic spotlighted the top 20 Pictures of the Year in its December 2024 issue.
The photos include captivating images of animals, nature, scientific innovation, and landscapes.
Photo editors at the magazine chose the top 20 photos from a selection of 2.3 million images.
Every year, photographers at National Geographic travel around the world to share stories through their lenses.
Then, at the end of the year, the magazine's photo editors select "the most stunning photos" taken by its photographers for its annual Pictures of the Year issue.
This year, 20 pictures were selected from a pool of 2.3 million photographs. According to National Geographic, these images "capture a thought-provoking glimpse at the wonders of the world around us, which serve as a refreshing break from the hectic fall we've all had."
National Geographic's December 2024 issue highlights the magazine's Pictures of the Year.National Geographic Magazine Cover, December 2024.
National Geographic
The December issue features pictures across various categories, from animals in the wild and cultural experiences to scientific advancements and stunning landscapes.
Ingo Arndt captured an image of a wood ant hatchling breaking out of its cocoon.A wood ant hatchling breaks out of the cocoon with its mandibles.
Ingo Arndt
Arndt and researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany built a see-through ant home that mimicked the insect's natural surroundings to observe how wood ants reproduce.
Through the nest, the photographer watched female colony workers clean eggs, larvae spin cocoons, and hatchlings open cocoons with their mandibles to capture this moment.
Christie Hemm Klok photographed a flock of macaws at The Oasis Sanctuary in southern Arizona.Janet Trumbule, the director of The Oasis Sanctuary in Benson, Arizona, tries to coax the macaws — a species of highly social birds — with their favorite food: walnuts.
Christie Hemm Klok/National Geographic
Macaws are social birds with a lifespan of 40 to 60 years. They often struggle in captivity, displaying stressed behaviors that make them tough pets. Many are cared for at The Oasis Sanctuary in Benson, Arizona, which is home to around 800 parrots, cockatoos, macaws, and other bird species.
When photographer Hemm Klok visited, the birds' loud noises proved challenging for her work until the sanctuary's director, Janet Trumbule, soothed them with their favorite treat: walnuts.
John Stanmeyer captured a rare moment: the emergence of brood XIX and brood XIII of cicadas.Periodical cicadas, which spend years underground, emerged in Springfield to call out their mates.
John Stanmeyer/National Geographic
For the first time in 221 years, brood XIII, with a 17-year cycle, and brood XIX, with a 13-year cycle, emerged simultaneously in the Midwest and southeastern United States, respectively, last May and June. The cicadas only emerge from the ground to reproduce.
Here, Stanmeyer managed to capture the rare moment in Springfield, Illinois.
In this photo by Ami Vitale, a scientist holds a 70-day-old rhino fetus.A scientist holds the 70-day-old fetus of a rhino conceived through in vitro fertilization.
Ami Vitale/National Geographic
With only two northern white rhinoceroses left in Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, scientists from an international project called BioRescue proposed a new solution: using in vitro fertilization to transfer a southern white rhino embryo into a southern white rhino surrogate.
While the pregnancy was a success, the moment was bittersweet — the surrogate mother had died from an unrelated bacterial infection.
Still, the project was an overall win since it meant that the in vitro technique worked on rhinos and could be replicated to potentially save the species from extinction.
Bertie Gregory photographed a young emperor penguin leaping off a 50-foot cliff in Atka Bay.A young emperor penguin jumps off a 50-foot cliff for its first swim in Atka Bay, Antarctica.
Bertie Gregory/National Geographic
In 2024, Gregory — who has been documenting penguins in Antarctica for eight years — witnessed a rarely seen spectacle: a line of young emperor penguins leaping off a tall ice shelf in Atka Iceport, otherwise known as Atka Bay.
Usually, the youngsters' first swim is on low-lying sea ice, where they normally breed.
However, Gregory used a drone to follow the penguins when he saw what was happening. He watched as they successfully jumped off the cliff, an occurrence that scientists claim could become a common sight as the ice melts.
Caught in flight: Photojournalist Babak Tafreshi captured Mexican free-tailed bats as they flew out of Frio Cave in Texas.Mexican free-tailed bats fly out of Frio Cave, Texas, on April 6, 2024.
Babak Tafreshi/National Geographic
Frio Bat Cave in southern Texas is the spring and summer home of about 10 million Mexican free-tailed bats.
Most nights around sunset, bats fly out in a coordinated stream to feed on moths. "You think maybe it'll finish in 10 minutes," said Tafreshi, but their takeoff "continues for two hours."
Tafreshi used a fish-eye lens and soft flashes to document the moment, creating this 30-second single-exposure image.
Prasenjeet Yadav photographed this rarely seen black tiger at the Similipal Tiger Reserve in India.A black tiger — known for its merged stripes — patrols the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha, India.
Prasenjeet Yadav/National Geographic
About half of the 27 tigers in Similipal Tiger Reserve have black stripes. Still, they've rarely been spotted, even by longtime residents of the village. Still, Yadav was determined to photograph them.
To get them in the frame, he set up camera traps with infrared triggers on 24 trails, three of which ultimately saw regular tiger activity.
After spending 60 days inside the reserve, Yadav finally got this image of a young female tiger, one of just a few photos captured of the black tigers.
To see all 20 of National Geographic's Pictures of the Year, visit NatGeo.com/Photos.
