NATURE photographers have until Tuesday September 30 to submit entries for the Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) Feral Photo’s competition.

Now in its fourth year, the competition continues to expose the diversity of pest animals in our environment.

Last year’s winner, Felicity Hatton, took out the top prize and people’s choice award for her one in a million shot of a majestic wedge-tailed eagle scaring away a feral fox from a kangaroo carcass here in the Canberra region.

“I’d spent 20 days over 4 months huddled into a camouflaged tent so I was hidden away from the wedge-tailed eagles I was studying for my honours research. This image was taken with a motion sensor camera and was the last in a series of shots where the eagle had just swooped in to frighten off the fox.”

“This photo competition is a great way of showing the types of pest animals that are out in the wild in Australia and the impact they have on our native species. There was a time wedge-tailed eagles’ were considered the pests and had bounties offered for their capture. Thankfully this is not the case anymore for this native species, and it is the eagle in this image doing a great job of scaring off the real pest – a fox.”

Through the power of photography Canberra’s IA CRC, the country’s leading pest animal research collaboration, wants to raise awareness about the damage pest animals cause to the environment and agriculture.

National NRM Facilitator Jessica Marsh, from the IA CRC and NSW Department of Primary Industries, is coordinating the competition which receives hundreds of outstanding photos from all over Australia.

“I hope that this competition encourages people to get out there and see what is happening in their environment and to get creative about how they can capture photographic evidence of pest animals such as rabbits, wild pigs, wild dogs, foxes and feral cats, just to name a few,” said Ms Marsh.

There is a limit of five photo entries per person and great prizes are on offer. The competition closes 30 September 2014. Entries can be submitted at www.invasiveanimals.com/feral-photos.