Award-winning nature photographer Georgina Steytler from Albany, Western Australia, has captured international recognition for the second time, winning the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award in the invertebrate category. Her winning photograph features an extraordinary gum leaf skeletonizer caterpillar, commonly known as the "mad hatter," captured right in her own backyard in Albany, located 420 kilometers south of Perth on Western Australia's south coast.
The remarkable image showcases a poisonous caterpillar that displays a bizarre and fascinating survival adaptation - it wears its old molted heads stacked on top of its current head like a crown. Steytler discovered this elusive creature during a routine dog walk when she noticed unusual markings on a gum leaf and decided to investigate by turning it over. "I've been looking for this caterpillar for a while after I saw it in a book and it is nuts, it's absolutely nuts," Steytler explained about her incredible find.
The caterpillar's unique appearance results from its molting process, where it sheds old head casings but keeps them attached to its body as a defense mechanism. "This caterpillar, it's a leaf skeletonizer, and he keeps his old heads on his head like a shrunken head totem pole," Steytler described. "You see him and then he's got a smaller one and then he's got another previously shed head, smaller on top of that, and then another one on top of that, and then a fifth on top." Research has shown that this grotesque adaptation serves as an effective predator deterrent, with studies indicating that caterpillars displaying these stacked heads survive seven times longer than those without them.
Despite being common throughout southern Australia, these fascinating invertebrates often go unnoticed due to their small size and tendency to remain on the undersides of leaves. However, Steytler emphasized that they are accessible to anyone willing to look carefully. "They are right across southern Australia, so they're not uncommon, but we don't see them, probably because they're on the underside of the leaf and they're actually quite small," she noted. "But rest assured, if people keep their eyes out, they are around us, they're everywhere, so these caterpillars with shrunken heads are in your backyard."
This latest victory adds to Steytler's impressive track record in international wildlife photography competitions. In 2018, she previously won the Invertebrates Behavior category with her striking image of mud-daubers rolling balls of mud. Last year, she received one of four highly commended awards in the same category for her captivating photograph of several Dawson's burrowing bees forming a mating ball. Her 2024 image also earned high praise from judges and photography enthusiasts worldwide.
Albany's location makes it an environmental hotspot frequently visited by photographers seeking to capture unique images of killer whales, southern right whales, and other natural wonders. However, Steytler's success demonstrates that extraordinary photographic opportunities exist much closer to home than many people realize. "What's so exciting, people think they have to go all over the world to get amazing images and these kinds of images, but you don't," she emphasized. "This was right in my backyard in Albany, backing onto Torndirrup."
Although Steytler has photographed wildlife from around the globe, her recent award highlights the remarkable biodiversity and photographic potential of her local Western Australian environment. Her work continues to inspire both amateur and professional photographers to explore and appreciate the incredible wildlife that exists in their own communities, proving that world-class nature photography can begin right outside one's front door.
