A TALENTED wildlife photographer from Melksham has scooped two awards in a national wildlife photography competition.

Ralph Harvey has been awarded commended prizes in Marwell Zoo’s Photographer of the Year contest's Residents category for his image of a cheeky silver marmoset and in the Endangered category for his portrait of an Amur leopard mother and cub.

Mr Harvey said: “The cub was still very young. I was waiting for a while but was then lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.”

Laura Barwick, image consultant for the BBC Natural History Unit and the competition’s head judge, said: “This picture is a stunning composition. The clever framing means you get an intimate portrait of an affectionate family bond. For me the most striking feature is the little cub’s blue eyes, perfectly set against the dark blue shadows of the background.”

The image of a silvery marmoset divided opinion among the judges as to whether he was blowing a raspberry or eagerly awaiting his dinner - and Mr Harvey said it was in fact meal time for the monkeys. He added: “This particular marmoset would go and quickly grab a bit of food and sit on the stick. I caught him at the right moment when he lifted his head up and enjoyed his food.”

Mr Harvey’s winning images will be exhibited at Marwell Zoo for 12 months. He also received tickets to the zoo and professional prints of his winning photograph.

The competition sponsors ’s overall top prize was an 8 day Estonia photography trip from wildlife holiday specialists Wildlife Worldwide and The Travelling Naturalist worth £1,795 along with an annual subscription to Digital Photographer magazine.

Other prizes included a special day at Marwell Zoo incorporating a Junior Photographic Experience, annual memberships and camera equipment.

Marwell is delighted to announce that Winchester based wildlife travel specialists, Wildlife Worldwide and The Travelling Naturalist once again sponsored the popular competition.

As well as providing some fantastic prizes, Wildlife Worldwide have also given £1,000 to help Marwell’s conservation work with Grevy’s Zebra in Africa, where they are doing field work in Kenya's arid northern rangelands to promote conservation awareness, as well as training workshops for newly recruited community scouts in data-collection methods. This work is ultimately aimed at providing an overarching framework for community-based conservation of Grevy's zebra as a flagship species, and wildlife conservation in general, in areas which have not previously been assessed or included in Kenya's national conservation and management strategies.