Selected from a record 59,228 entries from 117 countries, here are the overall winners and the 18 category winners of this prestigious competition by London’s Natural History Museum.
Celebrating its 60th year, the flagship Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition featuring 100 awarded images will open on October 11 at London’s Natural History Museum.
More Info: Natural Histroy Meseum (Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
# Winner, Wetlands: The Bigger Picture category
Western toad tadpoles swim up from the deeper, safer parts of the lake, avoiding predators as they try to reach the shallows to find food. This species is near-threatened because of habitat loss and predators. The tadpoles start turning into toads about 4 to 12 weeks after they hatch, but sadly, only about 1% survive to become adults.
# Winner, 10 Years and Under Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year
This young bird has not yet developed its adult call, which sounds like two stones tapped together. Stonechats tend to prefer open habitats and typically perch on fences.
# Winner, Behaviour: Mammals category
A group of toque macaques was moving through the trees above. One young monkey was napping between meals, and he captured the peaceful moment.
Toque macaques can quickly adapt to eating human food. However, as plantations spread into their habitat, there has been a rise in farmers shooting, trapping, or poisoning them to protect their crops.
# Winner, Behaviour: Invertebrates category
He watched as the red wood ants cut a dead beetle into small pieces to carry into their nest. Most of the ants’ food comes from a sugary liquid called honeydew, made by aphids, but they also need protein. Using their large numbers, they can work together to kill insects and other small animals much bigger than they are.
# Winner, Animal Portraits category
Wearing snowshoes and carrying light camera gear, he had been following this family of lynx for almost a week in the snowy forests of the Canadian Yukon. When he found fresh tracks, he followed them but stayed far enough away so he wouldn’t bother the animals.
The number of lynx usually depends on how many snowshoe hares, their main food, are around. But with climate change causing less snow, other predators have more chances to hunt the hares. This could lead to fewer hares, which would also mean fewer lynx.
# Winner, Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles category
While leading a tour group along the Transpantaneira Highway in Mato Grosso, Brazil, Aigner stopped so they could photograph some marsh deer. Then, she noticed something unusual floating in the water. Using binoculars, she quickly saw that it was two reptiles struggling with each other.
Caimans eat a variety of foods, including snakes. As anacondas grow larger, they also begin eating reptiles. It’s hard to tell which one started the fight. On the back of the snake were two blood-sucking horseflies, called tabanids, which often target reptiles.
# Winner, Animals in their Environment category
It took more than six months of waiting to achieve this relaxed image of the elusive lynx. A survey carried out in 2013 estimated the entire Russian lynx population was around 22,500 individuals, with numbers for the Russian Far East, including those in Primorsky Krai, at 5,890.
# Winner, Behaviour: Birds category
Zhi has been coming to this area for eight years, watching one of the birds that is always there and taking photos of its chicks. On this day, it was hard to follow the action because the birds were so quick.
If this young peregrine falcon grows up, tests show it will be able to dive down on its prey from above at speeds of over 186 miles per hour.
# Winner, Urban Wildlife category
Conz was part of a documentary team filming wildlife in the Western Ghats and had been following this tiger. On this day, he used a drone to watch the tiger explore its territory before it settled in one spot.
The protected areas in the Western Ghats are some of the most biodiverse places in India and have a stable tiger population because the animals are closely monitored. However, outside these areas, where development has caused conflict between humans and wildlife, the number of tigers has gone down.
# Winner, Impact Award category
The greater bilby, also known as the ninu, is a small marsupial that was nearly wiped out by predators like foxes and cats, which were introduced to its habitat. Kelk’s photo shows a greater bilby in a fenced reserve, where predators have been removed to help the species survive and grow.
Every morning, Kelk walked through the sand dunes of a conservation reserve in Roxby Downs, South Australia, looking for footprints left by this rabbit-sized animal during the night. When he found tracks near a burrow, he set up his camera trap.
# Winner, Impact Award
Liwia Pawłowska is fascinated by bird ringing, and has been photographing ringing sessions since she was nine. She says that she hopes her photograph taken in Rgielsko, Greater Poland Voivodeship “helps others to get to know this topic better.”
Volunteers can assist trained staff at bird-ringing sessions, where a bird’s length, sex, condition and age are recorded. Data collected helps scientists to monitor populations and track migratory patterns, aiding conservation efforts.
# Winner, Natural Artistry category
Jiří frequently goes to his local park, Park im Grünen, in Basel, Switzerland, because it’s a great spot to try out different camera techniques. To capture the artistic look of a sitting carrion crow, he purposely moved his camera in different directions while using a slow shutter speed.
Carrion crows are smart birds that have learned to live near humans, with gardens and parks offering them a steady food supply. In Switzerland, they are found north of the Alps, especially around Basel, where there are many of them.
# Winner, Photojournalist Story Award
The relationship between Amazon river dolphins and humans is complicated. In traditional Amazonian beliefs, people think the dolphins can turn into humans, and they are both respected and feared. Some people, however, see them as thieves that steal fish from nets and believe they should be killed.
Peschak took these photos in places where local communities are giving tourists the chance to see the dolphins. However, this creates new problems: when the dolphins are fed by people, they become unhealthy, and younger dolphins don’t learn how to hunt on their own.
# Winner, Rising Star Portfolio Award
Inspired by stories told by his grandfather, a retired marine biologist, and by a photograph of a larval cusk eel, Ono acquired a compact underwater camera and decided to take up underwater photography.
Here, it’s the submerged world of the bay’s forests of giant kelp, the largest of all seaweeds, and the diversity of life they contain.
# Winner, 11 – 14 Years Young Photographer category
During one summer, Pourahmad visited Ed R. Levin County Park in California almost every weekend to take photos. He wanted to highlight the variety of wildlife living in a busy city and show that “nature will always be wild and unpredictable.”
The Cooper’s hawk is a common bird found across southern Canada, the U.S., and central Mexico, where it lives in mature and open woodlands. These birds are also able to adapt to urban areas, where tall trees provide places to nest and bird feeders attract smaller birds for them to hunt.
# Winner, Underwater category
Smith used a special extension he designed for the front of his underwater camera to capture this split image. It was his first time encountering a leopard seal. The young seal swam by several times, getting closer each time. “When it looked directly into the lens,” he remembered, “I knew I had a great shot.”
Even though leopard seals are common and found in many areas, overfishing, melting sea ice, and warming waters are causing a decline in krill and penguins, which are their main food sources.
# Winner, Oceans: The Bigger Picture category
Justin’s team brings together biologists from around the world to study the impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems. Worryingly, the diet of flesh-footed shearwaters that nest on Lord Howe Island in New South Wales, Australia, is increasingly seasoned with plastic waste drifting in the oceans, including fledglings.
The team, including a Natural History Museum scientist, discovered it causes scarring to the lining of the digestive tract, a condition called plasticosis. In 2023, they retrieved the greatest number of plastic pieces ever recorded from this individual (403 pieces; weighing 41.9 grams).
# Winner, Plants and Fungi category
Gatto often goes to the Glen Affric ancient pinewoods in the Scottish Highlands, where he can be alone and enjoy its complex, wild, and timeless beauty. The pale ‘old man’s beard’ lichens show that the area has very little air pollution.
Glen Affric is home to the highest number of native trees in the U.K., making it an important ecosystem. Studies of pollen found in the layers of sediment show that the forest has been here for at least 8,300 years.
# Winner, Photojournalism category
Britta Jaschinski watches as a crime scene investigator from London’s Metropolitan Police dusts for fingerprints on a seized tusk at Heathrow Airport.
Jaschinski spent time at the CITES Border Force department, where confiscated animal products are tested. A new type of magnetic powder allows experts to get fingerprints from ivory up to 28 days after it was touched, which helps improve the chances of identifying people involved in its illegal trade.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare has sent over 200 special kits to border forces in 40 countries. These kits have played a key role in four cases, leading to 15 arrests.
