Animal portraits awardWinner: Warning night light by Larry Lynch (USA) one evening, while walking along the riverbed of the Myakka River State Park in Sarasota, Florida, USA, Larry came across a group of alligators. It was the dry season, and they had been gorging on fish trapped in the pools left behind as the water receded from the river. one big alligator had clearly eaten its fill. So I set my tripod and camera up about seven metres and focused on his eyes. Just after sunset, Larry set his flash on the lowest setting, enough to catch the eyeshine in the alligator's eyes. Like cats, an alligator has a tapetum lucidum at the back of each eye a structure that reflects light back into the photoreceptor cells to make the most of low light. The colour of eyeshine differs from species to species. In alligators, it glows red one good way to locate alligators on a dark night. The greater the distance between its eyes, the longer the reptile, in this case, very longPhotograph: Larry Lynch /2012 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year