Our Fortnight Focus challenge on NiF Hive – Animal Collective – curated a massive selection of entries from the community. We recieved such an expansive set of images that we decided to extend our list of top picks by a lot more than usual.
We also had great fun researching collective nouns for the wide variety of species for which images came in. Scroll down to find out the collective nouns for puffins, ibises and much more.
The winner takes home a Shutterbug Pro camera bag from Wildcraft and exclusive goodies from NiF.
A big shout-out to everyone who contributed, and a definitive invitation to those who haven't yet to join in for the next.
Sushmitha Reddy
A tower of giraffes
A dreamy portrait of giraffes against a sky bleeding gold on a late evening at the Masai Mara National Park, Kenya.
Vijay Ram Harinathan
A memory of elephants
An elephant herd peacefully makes its way back home after the day comes to a close at the Amboseli National Park, Kenya.
Indranil Basu Mallick
A skulk of jackals
Jackals glare back into the camera of the photographer at the Keoladeo National Park in Bharatpur.
Vivek Gandhi
A pride of lions
The photographer came across this pride at the Serengeti National Park in the early hours of morning. They lay sprawled in the high grass just off the road, when one of them seemingly annoyed by the flies bothering her, broke off and wandered over to this tree and climbed up. Within minutes, the rest had followed her on to the tree.
Tanay Panpalia
An ambush of tigers
This shy and elusive tigress was photographed with her three cubs on an early summer morning at a waterbody in the buffer zone of the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.
Manish Vaidya
A pace of wild asses
Asiatic Wild Ass pictured within the vast landscape of Rann of Kutch, Gujarat.
Sid Tripathy
A dazzle of zebras
The black and white zebra patterns take centerstage in this monochromatic image where the equids are seen congregating on a river bank at the Masai Mara National Park, Kenya.
Manickam Eswaramoorthy
A stand of ibises
Glossy Ibis wade in a lake during a foggy morning at the Rasalkhor Sanctuary in Dubai.
Sarbajit Ghosh
A seige of cranes
For as long as they can remember, every winter, the villagers of Khichan have welcomed the visit of the Demoiselle Crane.
Krinal Jani
A gaggle of geese
The photographer watched this large group of Greylag Geese, on a cold winter evening at the Thol Lake in Gujarat, as they took turns to feed while the rest of the flock stood sentry.
Nitin Shenoy
A circus of puffins
Here is a family picture of the Atlantic Puffin taken in the Saltee Islands of Ireland. These adorable birds are so similar to each other that they are almost indistinguishable.
Hira Punjabi
A flamboyance of flamingos
The courtship ritual of the Lesser Flamingo is a genuine spectacle, where entire colonies gather to march back and forth, all going in the same direction.
Apoorv Gupta
A gulp of swallows
Swallows queue up on electric wires in huge numbers as they take a brief pause from the day's exploits.
Swayamsiddha Mohapatra
A squabble of gulls
The image shows a huge congregation of various species of gulls at Lakhota Lake in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The reason for such an aggregation is the practice of the locals feeding the gulls gathia (deep fried snacks made from chickpea flour). Artificial feeding; besides leading to competition also subjects the gulls to lose out on valuable nutrition. The vast scale in which the gulls accumulate at an otherwise unlikely area shows how deeply our actions and beliefs can impact nature.
Adarsh Raju
A flutter of butterflies
One of the greatest spectacles in the natural world is the migration of Monarch Butterflies. The image was shot at the Monarch Grove in Pismo State Beach, California.
Mandar Ghumare
A cloud of mayflies
Mayflies emerge in huge numbers and take flight in swarms. Here, in this image, you can see them crowding the highway misguided by the bright headbeams of speeding vehicles.
