“This giraffe was annoyed by the red-billed oxpeckers that were harassing it,” says Marsel van Oosten of this Botswana-sunrise shot. “Every now and then it would violently shake its head, which made the birds fly off, only to return a few seconds later.”

*Top,* a pelican in Namibia. “The top wing belongs to another pelican that slapped me in my face,” Van Oosten says. *Above,* a tiger and her cub in South Africa.

*Top,* a dragon’s-blood tree in Yemen. Like some of nature’s most beautiful species, these majestic trees are at risk due to climate change. *Above,* sea eagles fight over food in Japan.

A family of crested black macaques in Indonesia in springtime, when the animals give birth.

*Top,* a polar-bear cub in Svalbard, Norway, that “had just finished their lunch and had not had time to clean up yet,” Van Oosten says. *Above,* a lone Tuareg crosses the sand dunes of Libya.

*Top,* a leopard in Zambia sits on her “termite mound throne,” Van Oosten says. *Above,* a pair of red-crowned cranes in Japan.

*Top,* a group of Adélie penguins rests on an iceberg in Antarctica. *Above,* a tiger in South Africa.

Animal Instinct

Marsel van Oosten’s photographs offer a tantalizingly close-up look at the world’s rarest wildlife

“A skilled nature photographer succeeds by disappearing,” writes the evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein in the foreword to Mother, a collection of Dutch photographer Marsel van Oosten’s stunning images of wildlife across the world. But there are times when it’s impossible to hide and get the perfect shot: “I have been charged and chased by elephants, rhinos, hippos, lions, and arctic terns,” Van Oosten says in an interview with Aleena von Storms included in the book. And, in fact, with Mother, a prodigious project that’s been in the making for 15 years, Van Oosten proves that he’s better at standing out than blending in. —Julia Vitale

Photos: squiver.com