Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 winners revealed
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 winners revealed
White wolves, towering giraffes and a prowling hyena all feature in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
Wim van den Heever (South Africa) photographs this haunting scene of a brown hyena among the skeletal remains of a long-abandoned diamond mining town. The rarest hyena species in the world, brown hyenas are nocturnal and mostly solitary. They are known to pass through Kolmanskop on their way to hunt Cape fur seal pups or scavenge for carrion washed ashore along the Namib Desert coast.
Photo Credit: Wim van den Heever / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Celebrating the very best of nature photography, the breathtaking images – featuring intimate portraits, amazing animal behaviour and conservation in action – capture the beauty, drama and diversity of life on Earth.
The overall winner is Wim van den Heever with his image 'Ghost Town Visitor', which shows a brown hyena wandering through the remains of an abandoned diamond mining town in the Namib Desert.
The winning images will feature in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London, from 17 October 2025 to 12 July 2026.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 winners revealed
Photojournalism winner - Jon A Juárez
Jon A Juárez documents the groundbreaking science to save the northern white rhino from extinction through in vitro fertilisation (IVF). Juárez spent years documenting the work of the BioRescue Project, and says that witnessing a milestone in saving a species ‘was something I will never forget’. This southern white rhino foetus, which did not survive due to an infection, was the result of the first successful rhino embryo transfer into a surrogate mother through IVF. This breakthrough paves the way for saving the rare northern white rhino from extinction, as scientists can take the next crucial steps towards transferring the first northern white rhino embryo into a southern white rhino surrogate. - Photo Credit: Jon A Juárez / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles winner - Frolicking Frogs, Quentin Martinez
Quentin Martinez captured a gathering of lesser tree frogs in a breeding event on Kaw Mountain, French Guiana. To attract mates, lesser tree frogs produce short, shrill calls. Huge numbers gather, and the spectacular breeding event – triggered by heavy rains – lasts for just a few hours. - Photo Credit: Quentin Martinez / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Georgina Steytler showcases the strange headgear of a gum-leaf skeletoniser caterpillar. This caterpillar’s unusual headgear is made up of old head capsules, each retained with every moult. The resulting tower is believed to help deflect attacks by predators. - Photo Credit: Georgina Steytler / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Behaviour: Invertebrates highly commended - Death on the Beach, Bence Máté
Bence Máté watched a young brown noddy chick being attacked by ghost crabs looking for an easy meal. Amid intense competition for nest sites, adult noddies are known to attack neighbours’ unguarded chicks, often pushing them out of nests. Scavenging omnivores such as ghost crabs take advantage, preying on anything that cannot escape. - Photo Credit: Bence Máté / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Behaviour: Invertebrates highly commended - Special Delivery , Bidyut Kalita
Bidyut Kalita photographs a hard-working potter wasp mid-flight with caterpillar prey for its young. Once the chamber is complete, the wasp sets about packing it with caterpillars paralysed by a sting, to provide live food for the developing larvae within. - Photo Credit: Bidyut Kalita / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Behaviour: Invertebrates highly commended - Eyes in the Moss, Jithesh Pai
Jithesh Pai discovers three tiger beetle larvae waiting in ambush. With large eyes alert to the slightest movement and needle-sharp mandibles open wide, tiger beetle larvae lurk in their burrows, ready to seize whatever stumbles within lunging distance. - Photo Credit: Jithesh Pai / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Oeans: The Bigger Picture winner - The Feast, Audun Rikardsen
Audun Rikardsen witnesses feeding time around an Atlantic fishing vessel during a polar night in northern Norway. Rikardsen managed to photograph this chaotic scene of gulls attempting to catch fish trapped by nets. The gulls have learnt to follow the sound of the boats to find a herring feast. Through his work, Rikardsen aims to draw attention to the ongoing conflict between seabirds and the fishing industry. Unfortunately, many birds drown in or around these purse seine nets each year. Various fisheries and researchers are trialling solutions, including sinking the nets more quickly to make them less accessible to the birds. - Photo Credit: Audun Rikardsen / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Plants and Fungi winner - Deadly Allure, Chien Lee
Much like flowers, many carnivorous plants utilize ultraviolet light (UV) reflectance patterns to lure insects. Although an abundant component of sunlight, UV is invisible to humans but it is highly conspicuous to the insect eye. Here at the onset of nightfall, a UV torch reveals a normally hidden fluorescence of blue light on the pitchers of Nepenthes mirabilis. Although this fluorescence itself may not be strong enough in the day to attract insects, its presence shows patterns in UV reflectance which may guide prey to the nectar-rich portions of the pitcher, such as the peristome and underside of the lid. This photo was taken in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. - Photo Credit: Chien Lee / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Underwater winner - Survival Purse, Ralph Pace
A swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum) in egg casing off Monterey, California. Researchers estimate that kelp forests in Monterey Bay have declined by more than 95 per cent over the past 34 years. Swell sharks depend on kelp to lay their leathery eggs, making them especially vulnerable to such losses. - Photo Credit: Ralph Pace / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Underwater highly commended - The Welcoming Turtle, Jake Stout
Jake Stout encounters a snapping turtle as it glides over lake vegetation in New Hampshire. Weighing up to 20 kilograms (44 pounds), snapping turtles can strike with speed and deliver a powerful bite when they’re hunting, though they’re also scavengers. - Photo Credit: Jake Stout / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Wetlands: The Bigger Picture winner - Vanishing Pond, Sebastian Frölich
Sebastian Frölich finds a springtail among a galaxy of neon green gas bubbles in Austrian moorlands. Austria has lost 90 per cent of its peat bogs, and only 10 per cent of those that remain are in good condition. Platzertal is one of the last intact high moorlands in the Austrian Alps, and an area renowned for its carbon-storing peat bogs. - Photo Credit: Sebastian Frölich / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Behaviour: Mammals winner - Cat Amongst the Flamingos, Dennis Stogsdill
Dennis Stogsdill witnesses a caracal hunting a lesser flamingo in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Caracals have a varied diet, from insects to antelope, and are renowned for the acrobatic leaps they make to snatch birds from the air. But there are few, if any, records of them hunting flamingos. - Photo Credit: Dennis Stogsdill / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Animal Portraits winner - Shadow Hunter, Philipp Egger
Philipp Egger’s patience is rewarded with the orange glint of an eagle owl’s eyes and the evening light falling on its feathers. About twice the weight of a buzzard and with a wingspan approaching 180 centimetres (6 feet), these formidable nocturnal predators are among the largest owls. They nest on sheltered cliff ledges or in crevices, often returning to the same site for years. - Photo Credit: Philipp Egger / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Animal Portraits highly commended - Inside the Pack, Amit Eshel
Amit Eshel gets eye-level with an inquisitive pack of Arctic wolves. Restricted to Canada’s most northern territories and northern Greenland, Arctic wolves are curious of humans due to a lack of interaction. They’re a snow-white subspecies of the grey wolf, pack animals that hunt hares and musk oxen. - Photo Credit: Amit Eshel / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Animal Portraits highly commended - Out of the Darkness, Santiago José Monroy García
Santiago José Monroy García provides a compelling glimpse of this Andean bear’s intense stare. Ranging across much of the tropical Andes, Andean bears are South America’s only native bear species. Omnivorous and opportunistic, they feed mostly on plants. However, habitat loss from cattle farming has led to increased conflict between bears and humans. - Photo Credit: Santiago José Monroy García / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
A troop of langur monkeys captured at one of Khanolkar’s camera trap locations in the central Indian forests near Chandrapur, Maharashtra. They would regularly come down to the water hole and spend quite some time around the camera trap, which was placed there to capture big cats. - Photo Credit: Nayan Khanolkar / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Animals in their Environment winner - Like an Eel out of Water, Shane Gross
Peppered moray eels are well adapted to the intertidal zone. They can hunt both above and below the water’s surface using their keen senses of smell and sight, sometimes staying out of water for more than 30 seconds. Image taken on D'Arros Island, Seychelles. - Photo Credit: Shane Gross / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Animals in their Environment highly commended - Ice Edge Journey, Bertie Gregory
Emperor penguin chicks travelling at ice shelf edge before their first swim at Atka Bay in Antarctica. Scientists believe the continued decline of sea ice in Antarctica may force more penguins to breed on ice shelves, making this behaviour increasingly common in the future. - Photo Credit: Bertie Gregory / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Animals in their Environment highly commended - The Calm after the Storm, Roberto Marchegiani
Roberto Marchegiani captures a group of Baringo giraffes caught in wet weather. This rare subspecies had been wiped out in Kenya due to poaching, agricultural expansion and habitat destruction. The steadily increasing Kenyan population exists today because some were reintroduced to Lake Nakuru in 1997 by the Kenyan government. - Photo Credit: Roberto Marchegiani / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Behaviour: Birds winner - Synchronised Fishing, Qingrong Yang
Qingrong Yang perfects photographic timing to show a ladyfish snatching its prey from right under this little egret’s beak. Once a natural marine harbour, Yundang Lake was sealed off from the sea during 1970s development. Isolated from the tides and currents, it became polluted and stagnant. An engineering project later reconnected it to the sea via a system of gates that regulate water flow. - Photo Credit: Qingrong Yang / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Behaviour: Birds highly commended - A Nip to the Tail, Hira Punjabi
Hira Punjabi captures a rose-ringed parakeet delivering a painful nip to the tail of a Bengal monitor. Native to the Indian subcontinent and equatorial Africa, rose-ringed parakeets have been introduced around the world as pets. Feral populations now thrive in cities across Europe, North America and Japan, where they compete vigorously with native birds and bats for nest-holes. - Photo Credit: Hira Punjabi / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Urban Wildlife highly commended - No Place Like Home, Emmanuel Tardy
As their habitats become increasingly fragmented, sloths are forced to make more ground crossings to reach the safety of the next tree. In response, the Costa Rican government is working with local NGOs to establish biological corridors, including aerial bridges that reconnect their forest homes. - Photo Credit: Emmanuel Tardy / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 overall winner
Urban Wildlife winner (and Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 overall winner) - Ghost Town Visitor, Wim van den Heever
Wim van den Heever photographs this haunting scene of a brown hyena among the skeletal remains of a long-abandoned diamond mining town. The rarest hyena species in the world, brown hyenas are nocturnal and mostly solitary. They are known to pass through Kolmanskop on their way to hunt Cape fur seal pups or scavenge for carrion washed ashore along the Namib Desert coast. - Photo Credit: Wim van den Heever / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 winners
15 – 17 Years winner (and Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 overall winner) - After the Destruction, Andrea Dominizi
Andrea Dominizi’s photograph tells a poignant story of habitat loss. As longhorn beetles tunnel into dead wood, fungi make their way inside, helping to break it down and recycle nutrients. If the beetles’ habitat is disturbed or destroyed, the effects ripple across the entire ecosystem. - Photo Credit: Andrea Dominizi / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
15 – 17 Years runner up - Jellied Meal, Tinnapat Netcharussaeng
A graceful green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) glides through the waters of the Gulf of Thailand, holding onto the sprawling tentacles of a large jellyfish. The encounter underscores the challenges sea turtles face in distinguishing between jellyfish and floating plastic debris, such as single-use plastics and ghost nets. Mistaking plastic for prey is a leading cause of injury and death among sea turtles, contributing to their endangered status. - Photo Credit: Tinnapat Netcharussaeng / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
11–14 Years winner - Alpine Dawn, Lubin Go
Native to Europe, the Alpine ibex was hunted close to extinction in the early 1800s. Thanks to protection and reintroduction efforts, ibex now roam large areas of the Alps. However, a rapidly changing climate causing shifts in food availability during breeding seasons may hinder their survival. - Photo Credit: Lubin Godin / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
11–14 Years runner up - On Guard, Rithved Girishkumar
Rithved Girishkumar captures a band of stingless bees standing guard at the tube-like entrance to their nest, in Kerala, southwest India. Stingless bees are important pollinators. There is concern that climate change could shift the timing of pollen production so it no longer aligns with insect activity. A mismatch like this may affect pollination and the production of foods such as honey. - Photo Credit: Rithved Girishkumar / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
10 Years and Under winner - The Weaver’s Lair, Jamie Smart
Jamie Smart spots an orb weaver spider inside its silken retreat on a cold September morning. This spider’s web is constructed from a scaffold of radial threads, overlaid with a spiral of sticky silk to hold ensnared insects. A strong signal thread transmits vibrations to the spider’s hiding place, triggering it to emerge and collect its prey.
10 Years and Under runner up - MealStop, Alberto Román Gómez
Alberto Román Gómez observes a European stonechat tirelessly hunting invertebrates to feed its young. Stonechats prefer open habitats where they can perch and look out for insects. Their softly lined nests are built in low, dense vegetation, where they incubate the eggs for 13–14 days. Both parents feed the chicks. - Photo Credit: Alberto Román Gómez / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Picture researcher across BBC Science Focus, BBC Countryfile and BBC Wildlife
Lily is the picture researcher across BBC Science Focus, BBC Countryfile and BBC Wildlife. She holds a degree in Photojournalism, where she specialised in social documentary reportage. Her photographic work has been shortlisted for the BarTur Photo Award’s Unity in Diversity category and exhibited internationally as part of the Urban Photo Awards. Before joining the team, she worked on freelance projects and as a product specialist for leading camera brands.
