“The Aftermath,” a deeply affecting image of an adult elephant carrying her dead calf along the sand of a dry riverbed, has won the overall prize of the Natural History Museum ’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 competition, selected from a record-breaking 65,403 entries from 121 countries and territories.

The image ‘Labour of Love’, showing the arduous exertion of a dung beetle pushing its precious cargo, is the winner of the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026.

The prestigious international photo competition has been championing the extraordinary power and beauty of wildlife photography through its 62-year history, connecting people with nature while highlighting the challenges wildlife faces around the world.

The overall winners and the winning images of each competing categories showcasing powerful stories from the natural world and the urgent need to protect it, were selected for their originality, technical excellence, ethical practice and creativity.

Wildlife Photographer: Black And White’s Power

In a first for the competition’s 62-year history, both overall winners -- the Italian wildlife photographer Federico Veronesi and the young photographer residing in Zimbabwe, Oscar Whitfield – were recognized for black-and-white photos, “demonstrating the enduring power of monochrome imagery to tell compelling wildlife stories,” the organizers explain.

Together, their winning images "remind us that every species plays a role in the complex web of life, and why understanding and protecting the natural world has never been more important,” said Dr Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum.

The Winners And The Exhibition

The winning photographs are showcased in a highly anticipated exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London, until July 27, 2o27, across topics ranging from underwater to urban wildlife, and photojournalism to mammal behaviour.

Reuniting the best in nature photography, the exhibit is a journey from polar landscapes to tropical rainforests, vast oceans to remote deserts, through 100 extraordinary images that have made it to the top in this year’s competition.

The exhibition will also help visitors understand how our planet’s habitats are changing by including the Natural History Museum’s groundbreaking metric, the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII), which measures on a scale of 0 to 100% how much of a region’s natural biodiversity remains .

Adopted as an official Global Biodiversity Framework indicator for decision-making, it’s an essential tool for understanding, monitoring and communicating biodiversity changes on a global scale and tracking international progress towards conservation goals.

Tickets for the exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London are now available .

Wildlife Photographer Overall Winners

Federico Veronesi witnessed a powerful moment of an elephant carrying a dead calf, a rare glimpse into complex animal behavior.

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.

Behaviors centering on death have been observed in both Asian and African elephants, including vocalizations, guarding the dead, inspecting and handling bones, and carrying the deceased. Some researchers suggest these behaviors could indicate an elephant’s journey to understanding death, while others interpret these actions as possible displays of grief.

Kathy Moran, Chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Jury, says: “this photograph works on so many levels. Emotionally it’s a gut punch, heartbreakingly poignant. Intellectually it’s proof that animals have cognition. This photograph says it all.”

The winning image, ‘Labour of Love’, captures the arduous exertion of a dung beetle pushing its precious cargo. Using a fast shutter speed and high light sensitivity, Oscar Whitfield lay flat on the ground to photograph the beetle at eye level, with the sunshine and heat creating dry dust all around him.

There are more than 5,000 species of dung beetle found around the world, and they play a vital role in their environments. 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 faster, reducing the number of pests affecting livestock and wildlife.

The Wildlife Photographer Category Winners

Amelie had been taking photographs of bees for several months. On this August afternoon the garden was ‘teeming with bees’. Without her camera, Amelie 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 color for nectar and another for pollen helps them make rapid decisions when foraging. Their vision is tuned to blue, green and ultraviolet wavelengths so that they can see markings invisible to us.

While there was no shortage of subjects and action around this waterhole, James had to deal with the harsh, unforgiving light. He chose to soften the light, creating this dream-like scene.

Waterholes can act as vital lifelines during severe droughts. Larger animals, such as elephants, have priority over others for access to waterholes. Herbivores spend more time at these drinking spots when elephants are present, possibly because their size deters predators, although competition for access to water may also prolong herbivores’ stay.

Exploring the swamp in a narrow canoe with a guide, Isak felt exceptionally lucky to see not one but two elusive shoebills. The birds pulled out vegetation, dropped it and then repeated the process several times. It’s 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 decreasing.

Tony has been working with biologists to address a knowledge gap in the social behavior of this eel species. Guided only by a dim, red-light source to minimize disturbance, and using a customized fisheye camera lens, he has studied this male since 2024 as it visits females that dwell in crevices on the reef.

This is likely the first time Abbott’s moray eel courtship and spawning have been documented, and the observations from Tony’s work with biologists are feeding into published scientific studies.

When Alexis 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 out.

A previous winner of the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, Alexis got his first camera at age 10. His focus shifted to macro photography during the Covid-19 lockdowns, when he was unable to venture farther than the urban habitats close to home in Berlin, Germany.

He wants to bring Winner, Rising Star Award attention to species that often go unnoticed.

Tied to the fence and presented as a hunting trophy, this display was one Francisco had “never witnessed or photographed before.” Although in 2025, Santa Cruz banned the hunting of pumas, 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 hunting.

In southern Chile, some owners have even abandoned sheep farming in favor of puma tourism.

Anton hadn’t seen this pose before, despite documenting newt behaviour each winter. Because the pond was too dirty to swim in, Anton waded along the edge, carefully dipping his camera and lighting beneath the surface to record this remarkable view of parental care.

California newts interlock their back feet to protect the clutch, which are 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 onto the stem.

Michał was in a field of unharvested sunflowers that had attracted mixed flocks of birds, especially goldfinches and bramblings. As they took to the sky, startled by a sparrowhawk, Michał 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 group. With more eyes on the lookout for predators, individuals can also afford to devote more time to feeding.

A coyote pads along a trail in Bernal Heights Park, overlooking the city and bay of San Francisco. This individual is part of a resident pack that Loren observed hunting rodents in the park, which is also popular with people and dogs.

Around 100 of these urban-adapted wild canines live alongside more than 800,000 human inhabitants, and attitudes towards them are mixed. While coyotes sometimes prey on domestic animals, they also bring benefits such as controlling disease-carrying rodents.

In this portfolio, Loren invites us to reconsider our perceptions of these wild animals and their place in urban environments, living alongside humans.

Konrad crouched down low on the steep slope of the vineyard and pointed 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 dawn. During the spring breeding season, the males sing from elevated vantage points to proclaim their territory and to attract a mate. Females respond with a softer sound, known as a subsong, during courtship.

The challenge wasn’t finding these lizards. Rather, the goal was to catch them in action because they spend most of the day basking in the sun. When Seth spotted this one, he lowered himself down onto the mud to frame this city dragon against the Bangkok skyline.

Common water monitors have successfully adapted to living within cities across South and Southeast 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 Park.

David was navigating a narrow track when he encountered a vigilant family of elephants that proceeded to form a protective circle around their calves. He took this image from a distance before the herd turned and disappeared back into the forest.

Asian elephant societies are matrilineal: Older females bring crucial experience to multiple generations in the group. Studies have found that the presence of a grandmother cuts the mortality risk to calves born to young mothers by about eightfold.

Another moving image of a mammal, this time in the sea; An adult orca carries the dead body of a calf in the freezing waters of a Norwegian fjord.

Vegard had just launched a drone to document sightings for the Norwegian Orca Survey when something caught his attention – an adult orca carrying a deceased calf, occasionally dropping it and then retrieving it as it sank. Although difficult to witness, Vegard felt it was “important to document the moment.”

Cetacean mothers have been known to use their heads to lift newborns to the surface to breathe, raising the possibility that Vegard was witnessing efforts to revive the calf. Some researchers interpret this behavior as a reflection of the deep bond between mothers and calves.

Kutub reveals a magical and often surreal world of slime molds that can barely be seen with the naked eye. The structures depicted in this portfolio are just one to two millimetres high – less than 1/12 of an inch.

Like tiny dancers, fine threads, known as capillitium, emerge on the round, yellow-green bodies, which will eventually help disperse reproductive spores. Kutub says they appear like “tiny clusters or unusual textures on the wood, often appearing as minute pins, spheres or dust-like groupings.”

He became interested in slime molds in 2024, and as a macro photographer now devotes much of his time to revealing this tiny hidden world. He loves exploring his local woodlands in southeast England, where fallen logs and damp forest floors provide opportunities for discovering these fascinating organisms.

Slime molds occur throughout the world, mostly growing on dead wood or leaf litter while feeding on other micro-organisms.

This photograph is part of Alex’s long-term project documenting the industrial footprint on bodies of water.

The distinctive pink color on the left is caused by bright pink 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 is in sharp decline due to industrial use, upstream diversions and climate change. Since this image was taken, the State of Utah has brought the area under conservation management.

A kingbird mobbing a red-tailed hawk shortly after it snagged a brush rabbit.

Jack visited the park all the time to watch the hawk as it was raising its chicks. He was amazed by the combination of “three completely different animals somehow connected in a fascinating story that you would never expect.”

Mobbing is a common and effective defense for many birds. Such harassment makes it difficult for the larger bird, usually a raptor, to remain concealed or to rest -- and because it doesn’t want to waste energy retaliating, the best solution is to move on.

A Taiwan blue magpie return to its nest with a coat hanger taken from a nearby balcony in Taipei City.

Marie learned via social media that a small number of local magpies had developed this unusual nest-building behavior. Keen to document this herself, she watched one flying into a nest constructed almost entirely from coat hangers, eventually photographing one in the act.

These magpies are found only in Taiwan and traditionally inhabit mountain forests, where they construct large, platform-like nests of sticks and twigs. Due to habitat loss, they are now moving into cities, and are showing their resourcefulness as they adapt to this new environment.

Yitong Zhao is drawn to the eyes of an African elephant as it looks out from behind the bars of its zoo enclosure.

When she noticed this elephant gazing at her through the railings of its enclosure, she felt like “it wanted to communicate with me” as she photographed this scene.

Yitong observed that this individual shared its enclosure with only one other elephant. It’s unlikely that this would be enough to meet an elephant’s complex social needs.

Many scientists have shown that elephants are intelligent and highly social animals that suffer physically and psychologically in unsuitable captivity.

  • The 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London, opened on October 16 and runs through July 11, 2027. The exhibition will also embark on a UK and international tour to inspire millions to appreciate and conserve the natural world.
  • See all the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 here .