Professional wildlife photographer Andy Rouse who lives between Abergavenny and Monmouth, has won Highly Commended in the prestigious European Wildlife Photographer Of the Year competition with an incredible image of a black leopard and its prey.

The competition results, announced a few days ago, saw entries from 1,120 photographers from 48 countries who submitted more than 24,500 images.

Andy who has been a professional wildlife photographer for 25 years says “It means so much to get this award as every professional in the world strives to do well in it. The standard is so high and so to win this award, my fourth in this competition, is a recognition of the skill and hard work of my team to help me capture this rare image of a black leopard”.

The intensely atmospheric wining picture, photographed in Kenya, shows a black leopard at the moment she captured her prey.

It’s the third award of this year for Andy Rouse, having won highly commended awards in the USA equivalent competition of a racing tailed lemur and secondly a Chaffinch singing photographed in his South Wales garden.

Andy Rouse has been a high profile professional photographer for 25 years, travels at home and abroad working on wildlife projects, leads groups and expeditions and is an engaging speaker and presenter on all things wildlife.

In 2012 he was honoured to be awarded the Cherry Kearton Medal by the Royal Geographical Society, an award bestowed upon a traveller concerned with the study of natural history.

He has appeared on multiple radio shows (including many for BBC Wales) plus TV interviews and even had his own wildlife show on Channel 5. At home he is a dedicated family man and enjoys living in rural Wales.