French biologist and photographer Quentin Martinez has won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 award in the "Behavior: Amphibians and Reptiles" category for his stunning image titled "Frolicking Frogs." The photograph captures an incredibly rare natural phenomenon in French Guiana where thousands of frogs simultaneously engage in breeding behavior during a single night.
The extraordinary event, known as "explosive reproduction," occurs just once or twice a year in the Guianese rainforest when the first tropical rains fill temporary pools. During this brief window of only a few hours, thousands of amphibians gather in what Martinez describes as a "deafening cacophony" to mate in a complete frenzy. The forest transforms into what he calls "an opera of cries, splashes, and light."
Martinez captured his award-winning photograph in November 2022 at the summit of Mount Kaw in French Guiana. "That evening, everything was calm. And suddenly, the forest began to sing," recalls the 33-year-old biologist. "It's an indescribable, deafening sound. Thousands of small cries intermingling, an animal chorus so powerful that you have to wear earplugs."
Currently working as a postdoctoral researcher in Stuttgart, Germany, Martinez is no stranger to expeditions and knows French Guiana well, having lived there during his studies. He first learned about this fascinating and unpredictable phenomenon during that time. "These explosive reproductions happen once a year, sometimes twice, when the first rains fill the pools. For a few hours, all frogs of the same species reproduce at the same time. It's a natural orgy, an explosion of life," he explains.
Observing this phenomenon requires both luck and patience. Martinez spent nearly a month returning every evening to several areas known to host these events, checking pools and watching the sky. "And then one evening, that's it. The forest awakens. In just a few minutes, it's madness: the trees are covered with frogs. Hundreds of thousands of individuals over just a few square meters. They jump everywhere, on the leaves, on you, on your camera. It's complete chaos!"
The scene appeared almost dreamlike, with tiny, lively golden tree frogs covering the vegetation. "You don't know where to look. They climb, mate, sing, fight. It's an incredible cacophony, joyful chaos. For an amphibian enthusiast, it's the most extraordinary naturalist moment you can experience," Martinez describes.
Amidst this tumult, Martinez maintained his composure to capture the perfect shot. He set up his Canon EOS 7D Mark II camera equipped with a 17-40mm wide-angle lens and adjusted his four flashes with a homemade diffuser. "I wanted the light to be soft, so as not to disturb them. I took dozens of photos because everything changes in seconds. The frogs move constantly; it's like photographing ping-pong balls. And then, at one moment, everything froze. They were all perfectly positioned on a leaf, as if they had posed."
The winning image, "Frolicking Frogs," shows five tree frogs with metallic reflections, each facing a different direction in an almost choreographed composition. "What I love is that when you look closely, you discover many little scenes: a male chasing a female, another singing, a third descending from the leaf. It's life in all its forms, concentrated in one image," Martinez explains.
For Martinez, this photograph represents more than just an aesthetic achievement; it's also a way to raise awareness about a little-known natural behavior. "These explosive reproductions exist in several regions of the world, but they remain very difficult to observe. Everything happens over just a few hours. And that evening, I had incredible luck." As a biologist first and foremost, he sees a message about the fragility of living beings in his work. "In another pool, the same year, all the tadpoles died because it dried up."
Passionate about photography since childhood—he began photographing insects at age twelve—Martinez has never stopped combining science with imagery. "I do photography as an amateur, but it's an integral part of my life as a researcher. It's a way to document behaviors we would never see otherwise."
When Martinez learned he had won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award among more than 60,000 images from around the world, he was happy but humble. "To be honest, I'm terrible at managing my photos; I have entire hard drives full of them. I was just happy to have been able to tell this story. If this image can spark curiosity about amphibians, that will be my greatest reward."
His photograph will be exhibited at the Natural History Museum in London starting October 17, 2025, alongside the hundred images from the competition. The exhibition will showcase the remarkable diversity of wildlife photography and the dedication of photographers like Martinez who combine scientific knowledge with artistic vision to capture nature's most extraordinary moments.
