So, after a month’s investigation and deliberation, the Natural History Museum today announced that the winning image taken by José Luis Rodriguez, has been disqualified. A spokeswoman for the Natural History Museum said organisers were saddened by the outcome of their investigation and “The judging panel was reconvened and concluded that it was likely that the wolf featured in the image was an animal model that can be hired for photographic purposes and, as a result, that the image had been entered in breach of Rule 10 of the competition.” She added: “The judging panel looked at a range of evidence and took specialist advice from panel judges who have extensive experience of photographing wildlife including wolves. They also considered the responses to specific questions put to the photographer, José Luis Rodriguez.”

While there is nothing in the rules to say you can’t enter images of captive animals, in fact I believe category winners in the past have been such entries, the problem is that the image was entered and declared as a one of a WILD wolf and that is where the photographer has come a cropper. Later reports have said that the £10,000 prize had been withheld (apparently it’s not given out straight away) and Rodriguez has been banned from the competition for life.

Having entered the competition myself over the last few years and reaching the semi-finalist stage each time, I’m pleased with the action taken, if maybe not with how long it took, after all the image has been used on plenty of promotional material and in the portfolio book. Still, it might be an interesting one to get, if only due to the fact that it’s a bit of a history maker.

You can read wildlife photographer Andy Rouse’s thought’s on the matter by clicking here.