The winning photo of this year's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards shows a hapless lion cub tumbling out of a tree

• The annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards highlight hilarious photos of animals in the wild.
• This year's winning photo, taken by Jennifer Hadley, shows a hapless lion cub falling out of a tree.

The annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards highlight hilarious photos of wild animals taken at the perfect time.

Photographer Jennifer Hadley took this year's top prize with her photo "Not So Cat-Like Reflexes." She captured the moment a young lion cub took a tumble out of a tree.

Hadley's photograph beat out 5,000 entries from over 85 countries, according to a press release.

"I think part of what makes this contest great is that most of these photos probably happen by complete accident, and that was certainly the case with the lion cub falling out of the tree," she said in a statement provided by the contest.

Hadley captured the photo on a safari in Serengeti, Tanzania, when she noticed a 3-month-old lion cub walking around in a tree. She positioned her camera, then the unexpected happened.

"It didn't even occur to me that he would make a go of getting down by himself in the most un-cat-like fashion. I mean, how often do cats fall out of trees?" she said.

The people in her truck gasped, she said. "No one expected this to happen and of course we were concerned for his safety, but happily as cats do, he righted himself just in time and landed on all fours and ran off with his siblings," she said. "A happy ending for a hapless kitty who didn't quite know how to get down from a tree."

As the winner of this year's contest, Hadley won a safari trip in Masai Mara, Kenya, along with a Think Tank camera bag and a handmade trophy from Tanzania.