Ben Alldridge, The Magic Rat (and His Slick Machine) (ENTRIES CLOSED - December theme: Your favourite shot of '25)

In Tasmania’s southwest wilderness, many creatures stalk the night. Eastern quolls (Dasyurus viverrinus) are amongst them, harbouring a very neat trick from us. Where their fur is normally fawn or black, under certain wavelengths of light, they exhibit a process referred to as biofluorescence – like nature’s version of a white shirt glowing at a disco. All of the light and colour in this image is the subject’s natural glow in response to invisible UV light, exploding from its natural sandy colouration. This is the first documentation of the species glowing in the wild and forms part of ongoing research into the impacts of light pollution.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.