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A selection of the winning images from this year’s competition across topics ranging from underwater to urban wildlife, and photojournalism to mammal behaviour. The overall winner is Federico Veronesi of Italy for his powerful image of an elephant carrying a dead calf
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The winning photographs will be showcased at the Natural History Museum in London from 16 October 2026 until July 2027
Wed 14 Oct 2026 08.41 BST
Wildlife photographer of the year 2026 | The Aftermath by Federico Veronesi, Italy | Winner, Behaviour: Mammals
Veronesi witnessed a powerful moment of an elephant carrying a dead calf, a rare glimpse into complex animal behaviours. He was tracking elephants when he came across an unusual pattern of drag marks in a dry riverbed in Namibia. A female emerged with the calf, its leg wedged between her tusk and trunk. Behaviours centring on death have been observed in Asian and African elephants, including vocalisations, guarding the dead, inspecting and handling bones and carrying the deceasedPhotograph: Federico Veronesi/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Escape Artistry by Michał Michalski, Poland | Winner, Natural Artistry
Michalski uses a slow shutter speed to create the illusion of trees still swathed in autumn foliage. A field of unharvested sunflowers had attracted mixed flocks of birds, especially goldfinches and bramblings. As they took to the sky, startled by a sparrowhawk, Michalski blurred the movement against a backdrop of leafless birches. There is evidence that flocks containing multiple species forage more efficiently, partly because each brings different skills to the groupPhotograph: Michał Michalski/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
The Great Divide by Alex Visbal, Colombia | Winner, Wetlands: The Bigger Picture
Visbal documents how a single engineered line can reshape an entire wetland. The distinctive pink colour on the left is caused by microbes that thrive in extremely saline water, which happens when an area is cut off from a supply of fresh water. The ecology of the lake in Utah is in sharp decline due to industrial use, upstream diversions and climate change. Since this image was taken, the state has brought the area under conservation managementPhotograph: Alex Visbal/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Shedding Light by Agorastos Papatsanis, Greece | Winner, Plants and Fungi
Papatsanis uses ultraviolet light to reveal the glowing yellow stems of ‘beautiful bonnet’ mushrooms growing from a decaying log. On the lower slopes of Greece’s Mount Olympus, he experimented with UV illumination until it revealed the strongest fluorescent response from the mushroomsPhotograph: Agorastos Papatsanis/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Night-Time Catch by Alex Lindbloom, US | Winner, Oceans: The Bigger Picture
Lindbloom finds a whale shark investigating the catch of a bagan, or mobile net-fishing platform, in the inky waters off Papua. He started searching for sharks around dawn when the nets were still in the water. Initially lacking natural light for his drone’s camera, he found these sharks illuminated by the bagan’s bright lightsPhotograph: Alex Lindbloom/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
A Watchful Eye by Aaron Sanders, UK | Winner, Animal Portraits
Sanders glimpses a common octopus behind a curtain of kelp in the waters off Cornwall. Aaron had been diving off Porthkerris Beach when he noticed the footprints of octopus suckers through a thin blade of kelp, and a single eye slowly emerging. ‘We remained perfectly still, watching one another with a seemingly shared curiosity,’ he saysPhotograph: Aaron Sanders/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Shifting Sand by Sitaram Raul, India | Winner, Behaviour: Invertebrates
Raul encounters a scorpion burrowing into one of the shifting dunes of the Thar desert. Exploring the dunes at night, he saw many scorpions searching for prey. But as sunrise approached, they started burrowing to avoid the intense heat. Raul timed the exposure so that the excavated sand was suspended in mid-airPhotograph: Sitaram Raul/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
The Meeting Place by James Lewin, UK | Winner, Animals in their Environment
Lewin watches a young bull elephant spray a group of zebra as they congregate in Kenya’s Chyulu hills. While there was no shortage of subjects and action around this waterhole, he had to deal with the harsh, unforgiving light. He chose to soften the light using a camera converted to infrared, creating this dream-like scenePhotograph: James Lewin/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Afternoon Snack by Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, Germany | Winner, Rising Star Award
Tinker-Tsavalas reveals the exquisite beauty of the tiniest of animals in the finest of detail. When he spotted this robber fly, it had already impaled the flesh fly with its needlelike mouthparts. The bubbles forming in the victim’s eyes indicate that the robber fly has injected digestive enzymes that liquefy its internal tissues before they are sucked outPhotograph: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Secret Worlds by Kutub Uddin, Bangladesh/UK | Winner, Portfolio Award
Kutub Uddin reveals a magical and often surreal world of slime moulds that can barely be seen with the naked eye. In this image – Tiny Dancers – an immature Cribraria aurantiaca is at a tiny and often overlooked stage in its life. Uddin became interested in slime moulds in 2024, and devotes much of his time to revealing this hidden world – exploring his local woodlands in West Sussex, where fallen logs and damp forest floors provide opportunities for discovering these fascinating organismsPhotograph: Kutub Uddin/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Warning Sign by Francisco Negroni, Chile | Winner, Photojournalism
Negroni recorded this scene of a dead puma amid the rugged, windswept beauty of Patagonia – tied to the fence and presented as a hunting trophy. The province of Santa Cruz in Argentina banned the hunting of pumas in 2025, but illegal persecution continues. Livestock predation is one of the major causes of human–puma conflict, and it’s suggested that enclosing sheep at night and using guard dogs can significantly reduce the loss of livestock without resorting to huntingPhotograph: Francisco Negroni/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Birdsong Painted in Light by Konrad Gräeter, Germany | Winner, 15-17 Years
Gräeter highlights a male blackbird singing in a vineyard early one April morning. He had to crouch down low on the steep slope of the vineyard and point his camera through a gap in the foliage to frame the blackbird within its landscape. Blackbirds can be heard singing at different times of day, but their songs have the most complex compositions at dawnPhotograph: Konrad Gräeter/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Protective Pose by Anton Sorokin, US | Winner, Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles
Sorokin finds a California newt laying its eggs as it clasps vegetation that already holds another newt’s egg clutch. He waded along the edge of the pond, carefully dipping his camera and lighting beneath the surface to record this remarkable view of parental care. The newts interlock their back feet to protect the clutch, which is vulnerable to predation by other newts. They will stay like this until the gelatinous mass around the eggs has swollen too large to be eaten and has solidified on to the stemPhotograph: Anton Sorokin/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Young wildlife photographer of the year 2026 | Labour of Love by Oscar Whitfield, Zimbabwe/UK | Winner, 11-14 Years
Whitfield notices the arduous exertion of this dung beetle pushing its precious cargo. Using a fast shutter speed and high light sensitivity, he lay flat on the ground to photograph the beetle at eye level, with the sunshine and heat creating dry dust all around him. Breaking up dung and burying it prevents the conditions required for methane production, reducing the quantity of greenhouse gas emissions. Burying dung also helps it decompose fasterPhotograph: Oscar Whitfield/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Making Morays by Tony Wu, USA/Japan | Winner, Under Water
Wu provides a first-time glimpse into the mating ritual of two Abbott’s moray eels at the apex of their spawning arc. On the verge of swimming back down to safety, the larger male in the foreground has already released a diffuse cloud of sperm, while the female in the background has just commenced ejecting a stream of eggs. This is likely the first time the courtship and spawning have been documented, and observations from Wu’s work with biologists are feeding into published scientific studies. Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyushu, JapanPhotograph: Tony Wu/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Scenes from the Swamp by Isak Pretorius, South Africa Winner | Behaviour: Birds
Pretorius chanced upon two elusive shoebill storks among wetland vegetation, while exploring the swamp in a narrow canoe with a guide. The birds pulled out vegetation, dropped it and then repeated the process several times. It is likely this is a breeding pair gathering nesting material. Though often called the shoebill stork, these large birds are more closely related to pelicans, herons and ibises. Fewer than 5,300 mature shoebills survive across their entire range and their numbers are decreasingPhotograph: Isak Pretorius/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Wily Coyotes of San Francisco by Loren Elliott, US | Winner, Photojournalist Story Award
Elliott opens a window into the lives of the often-misunderstood coyotes living in the environs of San Francisco. About 100 of these urban-adapted wild canines live alongside more than 800,000 human inhabitants, and attitudes towards them are mixed. Coyotes sometimes prey on domestic animals, but they also bring benefits such as controlling disease-carrying rodentsPhotograph: Loren Elliott/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Urban Jungle by Seth Forestson | UK Winner, Urban Wildlife
Forestson spots a common water monitor carrying its fish supper in a Bangkok park. The challenge wasn’t finding the lizards, but catching them in action, as they spend most of the day basking in the sun. Common water monitors have successfully adapted to living in cities across south and south-east Asia. They will take whatever food source is available, such as the plentiful supplies of catfish and koi in the lakes of Bangkok’s Lumphini ParkPhotograph: Seth Forestson/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026
Flight of the Bumblebee by Amelie Davis, UK | Winner, 10 Years and Under
Davis highlights a common carder bee suspended in mid-air as it flies in to land and feast on a flower in Surrey. On this August afternoon the garden was ‘teeming with bees’. Without her camera, she borrowed her dad’s smartphone and was able to record the delicate detail of a single wingbeat. Bees perceive plants and flowers in many ways. Distinguishing one colour for nectar and another for pollen helps them make rapid decisions when foragingPhotograph: Amelie Davis/Wildlife photographer of the year 2026Explore more on these topics
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