A PHOTOGRAPHER who spent two weeks trying to get the perfect picture of one of the world’s rarest big cats has been highly commended in a global competition.

Andrew Harrington’s picture – called Lure of the Leopard, right – will now feature in an exhibition at London’s Natural History Museum.

Mr Harrington, 40, spent a fortnight in the Far East of Russia watching for rare Amur leopards through a gap in a hide the size of a letterbox.

But the father-of two’s patience paid off when this picture was among just 95 images chosen for the show by judges from 43,135 entries submitted by photographers from 94 countries around the world.

Mr Harrington, of Clover Place, Eynsham, was highly commended in the Gerald Durrell Award category for pictures of endangered wildlife as part of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

He has entered the contest for the past 10 years and this was the third time he has been commended for his work.

Amur leopards are one of the world’s rarest big cats, with only a handful still alive in the wild.

In recent years, the species has been decimated by poachers, habitat destruction and loss of prey.

Mr Harrington, who runs Harrington Photography, spent two weeks in a hide at the Kedrova Pad reserve, in Russia’s Primorksy region, waiting for his perfect shot.

He said: “Amur leopards are very, very rare. Only around 30 remain in the wild and this will possibly be the future of all large carnivores, so I was interested to see an animal this close to extinction.

“I spent 20 hours a day looking out through a gap the size of a letterbox.

“Day after day, the only animals I saw were jays and tits. Then one day I got lucky.

“We had set up our hide near a feeding station and eventually the young male leopard arrived.

“He was nervous but seemed more annoyed by a lurking jay, which he attempted to scare off by snarling.”

Mr Harrington and his wife Lauren plan to visit the exhibition, which opens on Friday at the museum, in Cromwell Road, South Kensington.

news@oxfordmail.co.uk For more details of the contest and the exhibition, see nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto and for information about Andrew’s Harrington’s work and to see the leopard image, see harringtonphotography.com