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Princeton resident Sarah Geiger won first place in the mammal category of Brookfield Zoo’s 2024 Photo Contest with her photo of Whirl, one of the zoo’s Amur tigers.
Nearly 6,000 votes determined the winners of Brookfield Zoo’s photo contest, which featured three categories: mammal, bird and reptile/amphibian/invertebrate/fish, according to a release from the zoo.
A panel of professional photographers selected the grand prize winner from over 560 entries. Public voting then decided the top three in each category.
Steven DeYoung of Thornton won the grand prize with a photo of an Amur leopard, earning a Zoo Family Plus Membership, a Penguin Encounter for four, a painting by a Humboldt penguin and a $100 gift certificate, according to the release.
Winners in the mammal category are:
- First Place: Sarah Geiger of Princeton with a photo of Whirl, one of the zoo’s Amur tigers
- Second Place: Glenn Nagel of Orland Park with a photo of Sophia, an orangutan at the zoo
- Third Place: Aneliese Benitez of Elmwood Park with a photo of one of the zoo’s western lowland gorillas
Winners in the bird category are:
- First Place: Jacob Dalen of Manhattan, Illinois, with a photo of one of the zoo’s cock of the rocks
- Second Place: Jennifer Terzich of Chicago with a close-up photo of an ostrich
- Third Place: Mikenna Doyle of Elmwood Park with a photo of a piping plover
Winners in the reptile/invertebrate/amphibian/fish category are:
- First Place: Courtney Murray of Elgin with a photo of a frog half submerged in water
- Second Place: Lukasz Pawlak of Woodridge with a photo of a tiger longwing butterfly
- Third Place: Marissa Romero of Blue Island with a photo of a sea nettle
To view the winning photos, visit BrookfieldZoo.org/DigitalPhotoContestWinners. They can also be seen on several digital monitors around the zoo until Oct. 31 at the earliest.