WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Enjoy all the category winners from the renowned Natural History Museum competition, now in its 61st year

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Ghost town visitor Wim van den Heever, South Africa Winner: Urban Wildlife Winner: Grand Title, Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025

With sea fog rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean, Wim chose this spot at Kolmanskop, a long-abandoned mining town near Lüderitz, Namibia, for his camera-trap after noticing hyena tracks nearby.

The rarest hyena species in the world, the brown hyena is nocturnal and mostly solitary. The animals 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.

Cat among the flamingos

Dennis Stogsdill, USA

Winner: Behaviour, Mammals

Photographing around Ndutu Lake in Tanzania's Serengeti National Park, Dennis had been keeping an eye out for wild cats when news of a sighting came over the radio. It was a caracal, hunting wading lesser flamingos. Caracals have a varied diet, from insects to antelope, and are renowned for making acrobatic leaps when snatching birds from the air. There are few, if any, records of them hunting flamingos.

Visions of the north

Alexey Kharitonov, Israel/Russia

Winner: Portfolio Award

Alexey’s collection of six images showcases unexpected perspectives of Russia’s northern swamps (here, the uninhabited territory along the Taymylyr River), highlighting the change from summer to winter. Using drones, Alexey has picked out details in these vast terrains, capturing their wild beauty through striking compositions. Yet beyond this visual feast lie human-made threats — not least a pressing vulnerability to climate change.

Survival purse