Louis-Marie Préau's Image

'I have never forgotten,' says Louis-Marie, 'the first time I saw a European beaver under water delivering a branch to its family.' He is passionate about beavers and has returned each season for the past four years to the same spot on the Loire River in France to try to photograph what he saw that first time.

Last summer, wearing snorkelling gear, Louis-Marie eventually got lucky. Using weights so he could lie on the river bottom, being careful not to move and frighten the beavers, he finally photographed this adult dragging a poplar branch back to the dam for its kits. 'It looked like hard work,' says Louis-Marie, 'a long journey and a long time holding its breath.'