These are 10 of the best wildlife pictures taken in the last 20 years

Stephen Belcher/Nature's Best Photography Awards/Courtesy of Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

Leopard

They were selected from more than 500,000 images submitted over 20 years by photographers from around the globe for the annual Nature's Best Photography: Windland Smith Rice International Awards.

The 100 best-of-the-best photos will be displayed at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History through October 2016, in an exhibit called "Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards Presents: The Best of the Best."

The Smithsonian shared this selection of images with us, and they are presented here with permission.

Scroll down for the images, and a description of how they were caught from the photographers.