It's still there, but it takes a long time (for me) before it comes up. Or anything this morning on IS, for that matter -- painfully slow. You do have to be logged in, of course, to see it. (EDIT: Looks like the slowness may be a local problem.)

kelvinjay is correct, though, that anyone with a camera (even a camera phone) can and does shoot animals and nature. And now that IS is no longer distinguishing between cr*p and decent images, it makes it pretty much impossible for new, good images to be found.

In so many ways, it's a lost cause.

@OP - the Exclusivity forum has been there all day, AFAIK. Have you been logged out? But as KB says, and is mentioned in the Help forum, forums have been very slow.

One could just as well say, "Anyone with the kit can shoot lifestyle" - there's a huge amount of competition in that field too, so work has to be exceptional to sell.