Photo of mice fighting in London subway wins top award

But a young photographer is hoping his award-winning shot changes that perception.

Sam Rowley's "Station Squabble" has been picked from more than 48,000 images to claim a wildlife photography award from London's Natural History Museum, voted for by the public.

The image features two mice fighting over a few leftover crumbs in a subway station.

"Everybody knows about the mice on the Underground but I don't think anyone's seen them in that light before," Rowley, a 25-year-old researcher at the BBC, told CNN.

He admitted that he got a handful of "strange looks" from commuters while lying on the floor of various central London stations, but added: "People were quite curious. They were quite chatty and nice about the whole thing."

Rowley's winning Wildlife Photographer of the Year LUMIX People's Choice Award submission was selected from a short list of 25 images.

Four other shots came highly commended, including an image of an orangutan forced to take part in a performance in Bangkok, another of two jaguars holding an anaconda in Brazil, an image of a rhino and a conservation ranger in Kenya, and a photo of a group of white arctic reindeer.

Rowley, a semi-professional photographer, had the idea for his winning shot after being sent a video by a friend, who had filmed two mice scrapping while on the way home from a night out.

He subsequently spent about a week visiting station platforms in the evenings, staying until the early hours of the morning.

"I was quite disappointed with what I managed to get at first," he said, adding that the picture "grew" on him over time.

"With the majority of the world living in urban areas and cities now, you have to tell the story about how people relate to wildlife," he said. "Wildlife is fantastic and I think we need to appreciate the smaller and supposedly more difficult animals to live with."

Scenes from around world recognized

Here are the other shots that were highly commended.