Animal magic in Mammal Society Photographer prize

Roy Rimmer took the top spot for his picture of a brown rat jumping from a paint can directly towards the camera he set up in his shed.

Rimmer said: “I caught this rat in a live trap and kept it in a outdoor set I made. The set up is two meters long and a meter wide made of Perspex, it has a plywood front with holes cut in for my camera and flash guns, I and placed two rusty paint cans in the set up and the rat would leap from one can to the other. I had to use a flash to freeze the action.”

Second place went to Julie Milne, who captured a fox cub at her rain-soaked window.  “From day one when the cubs first emerge I observe and photograph their antics”, said Mrs Milne, from Hextable, Kent, who has a fox den in her garden.

“They are not tame but I have a strong bond of trust with two females that are particularly inquisitive.”

Judges said the photographs elevated the ordinary to the extraordinary, and challenge public perceptions of maligned animals like foxes and rats.