A touching photograph of an orang-utan and its baby taken by a nine-year-old has won top prize in the RSPCA Young Photographer of the Year competition.

Teah Higgs, from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, is a pupil at Archbishop King Middle School and took her picture at Singapore Zoo while on a visit to New Zealand. She said, ?I liked the photo because it shows the mother and baby very clearly and they were very cute – it also reminded me of a human mother and her child. They were interesting to watch and my family and I were fascinated by them. Seeing the mother and baby was very special as they were very close.?

The orang-utans were joined by a snowy egret and a collection of insects as winners of the annual RSPCA Young Photographer Awards. TV presenter, wildlife photographer and competition judge Chris Packham said, ?Being bug crazy, I?m particularly happy to see such a great selection of well-observed insect pictures! All these pictures show that if you take a moment to look at an animal ? or insect ? then what you may find is something really special.?

There were three category winners: Gemma Keys from Norwich won the 12-18 section, Alex Worthington from Bowerham, Lancaster was Under 12 winner, while Charles White from Jersey won the Olympus Portfolio Prize.

The winning photographs were chosen from a shortlist of 28, which itself was picked out of 10,000 entries from photographers aged nine to 18.

For more information, previous winning shots and photography tips from Chris Packham, visit: www.rspca.org.uk/ypa.