50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Some say that children and animals are the most difficult subjects to take pictures of (unless they’re sleeping, of course). That’s arguably true for many reasons, a couple of which are that they often just can’t stand still and don’t respond well to the photographer asking them to do so.

Today, we have prepared a list of beaaaautiful pictures of one of the two—animals, as shared on the ‘Crap wildlife photography’ Facebook group. Covering all sorts of scenarios, from the wild beings unable to stand still for a moment, to photographers messing up themselves, the list is filled with some impressive shots; but there’s no need to take my word for it, just scroll down to find them and see for yourself. Enjoy!

In order to learn more about animal behavior and the challenges those trying to capture it might face, Bored Panda got in touch with evolutionary biologist and Professor at the Department of Biology at Queen’s University, Robert Montgomerie, and wildlife and environmental photojournalist Steven Holt, who were kind enough to share their insight on the topic. You will find their thoughts in the text below.

#1 This Little Guy Takes A Nap In The Same Spot Every, Single Day (And In Another Tree But He Loves This Nook)

since it’s been 100 f degrees..And it’s been 100f for about 2 months here in Austin with no rain. I have plenty of water around the yard.He’s really enjoying his nap! Siesta time!

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Mirgun Akyavas

#2 Well That’s A Neat Trick

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Amanda Geahry

#3 I Finally Found The Perfect Place For This Beautiful Photo

While vacationing in the Colorado Rockies, late at night driving down the road to our cabin:
Husband: ”OH MY… A Mountain Lion!!! Get the camera, GET THE CAMERA!!!”
Me: fumbling to get the camera and quickly snapping a pic before the mountain Lion is gone.
Husband: ”Did you get it, did you get it?”
Me: “Well, um… kind of”  
I swear this is a mountain lion. The only one I’ve ever seen in my life, and the only picture I have to prove it.

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Lisa Kaufman

#4 And Jean Was Never Seen Again. Authorities Suspect Fowl Play

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Jenny Gray Hough

#5 This Buck Was Having A Bad Hair Day

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Nick Yezek

#6 I Got Lucky Enough To See The Rare Northern California Sea Potato! Butter And Chives Not Included

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Nikki Wolf

#7 In My Yard At The Same Time!

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Melissa Winkle

#8 Last Year On A Hot Summer Day I Took My Hiking Boots Off Because My Feet Were Getting All Sweaty While Trying To Photograph Wild Foxes

 Not even an hour later the female fox had approached my boots and was sniffing them, before I could react she took off with my left hiker!

Here’s an award winning still from the video I took while running after her. She let me chase her for a minute or so before eventually surrendering the boot 

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Izzy Edwards

#9 Almost A Cool Picture Of A Great Egret Catching A Fish, But A Bug Got In The Way

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Robert Otto

#10 Screenshot From A Video I Took Yesterday! I Had A Praying Mantis On My Hand, Then It Flew Up And Landed On My Phone And Chaos Ensued. But I Cannot Get Over This Face

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Sara Hemenway

#11 I’ve Been Trying To Get Them To Use This Thing For Weeks. Victory Is Mine!!!

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Ash Enolaemevael

#12 When You Think You’re Gonna Get A Great Photo But They Use You To Check Out Their Hair Instead

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Rachel Way Howard

#13 The Majestic Sea Lion Slumbers

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Anna Smitten

#14 Behold The Fabulous Pileated Woodpecker!

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Hazel Bakker

#15 I Wanted A Dive But He Just Wanted To Hang Out

This fella lost his balance upon landing and ended up upside down. He stayed like this for a good 3 minutes (probably from shock / embarrassment) before pulling himself up and perching normally

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Adam Maniam

#16 Effortless

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Courtney Cole

#17 When Panoramic Goes Pano-Wrong

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Jenny Garland Gray

#18 My House. Not My Cat

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Dawn Eyestone

#19 Clearly Underestimated The Size Of His Backside When Planning His Getaway

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Kara Smidt

#20 When You’ve Been Parked For 1 Hour And 59 Minutes And The Parking Inspector Is Getting Ready

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Claire Malcolm

#21 I Swear They Didn’t Seem This Big On The Course

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Mark Griffin

#22 I Was Trying To Get The Graceful Landing Of A Barred Owl. Instead I Got A Drunken Pole Dancer. The Third Eyelid Being Closed Was The Icing On The Cake

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Kelly Umberger

#23 This Bee Comes By My Brother’s Ring Doorbell Every Day

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Cathi Davis

#24 Psycho Owl

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Michael Rønde

#25 My First Post Here

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Alicia Allen

#26 I Was Trying To Take A Photo Of An Adorable Jackrabbit, But It Got Possessed And Stood Up On Its Legs Like A Demon. Yes, I Went The Other Way

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Rainey Miller

#27 I Was Trying To Get A Nice Picture Of Them All Lined Up On The Log…

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Taryn Venable

#28 No Bird Flies As Gracefully As A Sandhill Crane!

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Paige MacKenzie

#29 Such A Majestic Creature

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Bill Whaley

#30 Things I Never Expected To See In A Tree: Groundhogs

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Sara Hoover

#31 Very Good Shot Of A Cardinal

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Alex Lupo

#32 My Daughter Just Sent This From Her Vacation. It’s Been Unbearably Hot! She Deserves A Break. She Has Three Babies

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Charlotte Smith Schaefers

#33 Oregon Is Beautiful

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Rachel Heffington Pross

#34 Been A While Since We’ve Shared One Of Our Majestic Eagle Pictures Here. Having An Eagle Nest In Our Pasture, We Take A Lot Of *good* Eagle Pictures. Here Is A Recent One!

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Diana Holbrook

#35 Please Enjoy This Exquisite Photo Of Bridger Butte. It Could Have Been Much Better But These Ridiculous Wild Stallions Fighting Got In The Way

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Kristin Sarkar

#36 I Got Mooned By A Peacock

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Jenny Morris

#37 Merp

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Brad Imhoff

#38 This Mountain Lion Came Out Of The Bushes And Was Blocking The Trail Way Ahead Of Me

 I snapped a quick picture with my 600mm zoom and then yelled at my dog for us to go! Once I was around the bend and out of sight I ran all the way back to the car, about half a mile. When I was safe and sound, I checked the camera to see if I had a good picture of it….I ran from a fox. And I didn’t even get a decent picture of it

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Brooke Edwards

#39 A Once In A Lifetime Experience—seeing A Snowy Owl In The Wild. And By “Wild”, I Mean A Guardrail On Highway 20 In Upstate NY, Across The Street From The Drag Racing Track. I Think I Captured Nature In Its Purest Form Here

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Barnet Pavão-Zuckerman

#40 Backyard Bunny Handstand

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Nicole Remmler

#41 I Finally Captured A Photo Worthy Of This Group! Behold! I Give You, The Elusive Headless Moose!

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Angutekaraq Qakvalria

#42 When A Deer Ran By And I Still Caught It On Camera… Well Most Of It

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Angie Reynolds Photography

#43 That Time I Was So Excited To See My First Wild Weasel (I’m An Avid Wildlife Photographer)… And Just As He Got Somewhat Close Enough, He Turned, Ran, And Gave Me Nuthin’ But Nuts

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Izzy Edwards

#44 Raccoon On A Telephone Pole … A Very Comforting Presence

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Lindsay Sletten

#45 A Breathtaking Performance Of The Nutquacker

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Faye Nixon

#46 Frankly, I Don’t Know Why Natgeo Isn’t Returning My Calls

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Tyler Bozzuto

#47 Imposter Alert!

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Molly Rutten

#48 Midair Froggy

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Katherine Mae

#49 Trying To Photograph Bumble Bee Sweetly Sipping Nectar

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Judy Cardin

#50 It’s Wildlife. It’s A Photo. It’s Definitely Cr*p

50 Amusing Pics Of Unsuccessful Attempts At Wildlife Photography (New Pics)

Image source: Laura MJ