The Swarm of Life by Shane Gross

Image by Shane Gross

BIRDS of a feather flock together – and so do these western toad tadpoles, who were snapped massing beneath lily pads in Cedar Lake on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada, by photographer Shane Gross.

Gross, whose stunning image The Swarm of Life won him the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 award today, spent hours snorkelling in the lake’s chilly waters to get his shot. He had almost given up when he discovered that “the tadpole army was marching en masse from the deeper, safer end of…