The creative world of wildlife photography has always captivated lovers of photography, particularly wildlife photography with beautiful pictures from the wild. And it has always shown year in, year out that nothing short of excellence is required to win the coveted award of the Wildlife Photo Of the Year.

And in following this trend of excellence, photographers have ensured viewers remain always been thrilled by the amazing photos that depicts in every detail how the life in the wild really is. Over the years, we have been thrilled by beautiful photos that have won this coveted award. From Netherland photographer, Marsel van Oosten’s GOLDEN COUPLE, to Chinese photographer, Yongqing Bao THE MOMENT.

But, this years winner showed more than just creativity. He gave a different view to the lives of the animals in the wild that we rarely ever see. Russian photographer, Sergey Gorshkov took a photo of a Tiger hugging a tree. Now, while the exact reason why the tiger hugged the tree is unascertained, and some have argued that the tiger was only trying to mark it’s territory, I’d strongly like to believe that the Tiger was drawn to the beauty of nature as we all have been at different points in our lives.

This photo not only shows creativity and excellence, but it also shows a part of animals in the wild that we would all love to see more, and that is their love for nature.