STRICTLY EMBARGOED until 2300 BST Tuesday 17 October 2017 ONLY TO BE USED WITH COMPETITION World Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017 Memorial to a species: Brent Stirton, South Africa Grand title winner 2017 (Also winner of The Wildlife Photojournalist Award: Story category) HLUHLUWE UMFOLOZI GAME RESERVE, KWAZULU NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA, 17 MAY 2016: A Black Rhino Bull is seen dead, poached for its horns less than 24 hours earlier at Hluhluwe Umfolozi Game Reserve, South Africa. It is suspected that the killers came from a local community approximately 5 kilometers away, entering the park illegally, shooting the rhino at a water hole with a high-powered, silenced hunting rifle. An autopsy and postmortem carried out by members of the KZN Ezemvelo later revealed that the large calibre bullet went straight through this rhino, causing massive tissue damage. It was noted that he did not die immediately but ran a short distance, fell to his knees and a coup de grace shot was administered to the head from close range. Black Rhino are the most endangered rhino, HluHluwe Umfolozi is one of the last repositories for these animals, with less than 3000 left in the wild today. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images Reportage for National Geographic Magazine.) Press Image : Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum. Email: wildpress@nhm.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0)20 7942 5156 Mob: +44 (0)7799 690151