The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, held by the Natural History Museum, is a celebration of the world’s biodiversity. Now in its 59th year, the competition attracted 49,957 entries from 95 countries, from amateur and professional photographers of all ages. An exhibition showcasing 100 entries will open at the Natural History Museum on Friday and run until June 2024.

Winner, 15-17 years: In Israel barn owls are encouraged to nest near farmland by the provision of nesting boxes because they prey on pests like rodents

CARMEL BECHLER

Winner, Natural Artistry: captured from a boat, a pair of gannets nestle on a ledge in front of guano-spattered cliffs in Noss national nature reserve, Shetland

RACHEL BIGSBY

Winner, Underwater: a hippopotamus with two of her calves under the crystal-clear water of a shallow lake in iSimangaliso wetland park, South Africa

MIKE KOROSTELEV

Winner, Photojournalist Story Award: contestants in the West Texas Big Bobcat Contest wait to have their kills weighed. Viewed as a pest in Texas, the bobcat, also known as red lynx, is not protected under any laws and can be killed at any time by any means

KARINE AIGNER

Winner, Oceans — The Bigger Picture: a beached orca is photographed in its final moments in Cadzand-Bad, the Netherlands, after attempts to rescue it failed. An examination of the whale after death showed it was malnourished and sick

LENNART VERHEUVEL

Winner, Rising Star Portfolio Award: an ibex almost blends into the crisp white Alpine background in the bitter cold of Vercors regional nature park, France

LUCA MELCARNE

Winner, Photojournalism: huge swathes of greenery are cleared in Mexico to make way for a cross-country railway line connecting tourist destinations, bringing economic benefits but threatening devastating ecological consequences

FERNANDO CONSTANTINO MARTÝNEZ BELMAR

Winner, Animals in their Environment: two male Nubian ibex fight for dominance on a clifftop in the Zin desert, Israel, during mating season. Both survived the clash without serious injury

AMIT ESHEL

Winner, Plants and Fungi: a parasol mushroom releases its spores in the forest on a rainy day on Mount Olympus, Greece. The use of a flash allows the tiny spores to be seen

AGORASTOS PAPATSANIS

Winner, Behaviour — Invertebrates: fireflies light up the forest in Anamalai tiger reserve, Tamil Nadu, India, with a display that was captured using 50 exposures of 19 seconds each

SRIRAM MURALI

Winner, Behaviour — Mammals: four orcas prepare to “wave wash” a Weddell seal off the ice to secure a meal. They will work together to create waves that flip the seal into the water

BERTIE GREGORY

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A pod of orcas plot their assault on a Weddell seal in this image by Bertie Gregory, one of 19 category winners in the 2023 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. In the waters around Antarctica, these orcas (Orcinus orca) hunt seals by charging towards ice floes, creating a wave that washes their prey into the water.

In another winning image, taken by Lennart Verheuvel, a sick and malnourished orca is stranded on a beach in the Netherlands. Rescuers initially managed to refloat the whale, but she soon became stranded again and died.

Amit Eshel’s image shows two Nubian ibexes (Capra nubiana) clashing on a clifftop in Israel’s Zin desert. During the mating season, rival males rise up on their hind legs and ram their heads together, sometimes breaking each other’s horns. The duel lasted for about 15 minutes before one male surrendered, and the pair parted without serious injury.

Laurent Ballesta clinched the Wildlife Photographer of the Year title for the second time with this image of a tri-spine horseshoe crab (Tachypleus tridentatus), taken in the waters off Pangatalan Island in the Philippines. Horseshoe crabs, which are protected by a large, thick carapace, aren’t actually crabs but rather are arachnids, related to spiders and scorpions. This individual is escorted by three juvenile golden trevallies (Gnathanodon speciosus), which are alert for scraps of food stirred up by the horseshoe crab as it moves over the mud.

Mike Korostelev captured this photo of a hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) and her two offspring resting in a shallow lake in iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa. Hippos produce one calf every two to three years. Korostelev visited the lake for over two years, so the animals were accustomed to his presence, and took photos from a safe distance and to avoid alarming the mother.

This shot by Agorastos Papatsanis shows a fungus releasing its spores in the forests of Mount Olympus in Greece, illuminated by his camera flash. Parasol mushrooms (Macrolepiota procera) are an edible species found in temperate regions across the world. They reproduce by releasing billions of spores from the gills under their cap, which disperse in the air currents.

Amit Eshel witnessed a dramatic cliffside clash between two Nubian ibex. After hiking to a vantage point on the clifftop, Amit slowly crept closer, using a wide-angle lens to set the action of two clashing Nubian ibex against the dramatic backdrop. The battle lasted for about 15 minutes before one male surrendered, and the pair parted without serious injury.  

Location: Zin Desert, Israel 

Technical details: Canon EOS R5 + 24–70mm f2.8 lens at 45mm; 1/800 at f8; ISO 500

The ancient mariner,  by Laurent Ballesta 

 (Overall winner, Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023)

Laurent Ballesta captured this incredible image of a  tri-spine horseshoe crab moving slowly over the mud. It’s the second overall win for the French photographer, having previously taken the top prize in 2021 for his image of mating groupers. 

The tri-spine horseshoe crab has survived for more than 100 million years but now faces habitat destruction and overfishing for food and for its blood, used in the development of vaccines. But, in the protected waters off Pangatalan Island, there is hope for its survival. 

Location: Pangatalan Island, Palawan, the Philippines

Technical details: Nikon D5 + 13mm f2.8 lens; 1/25 at f22; ISO 800; Seacam housing; 2x Seacam strobes

Hippo nursery, by Mike Korostelev, Russia 

(Winner, Underwater) 

For over two years, Mike Korostelev had been visiting the hippos in this lake and knew they were accustomed to his boat. He spent just 20 seconds under water with them – enough time to get this image from a safe distance and to avoid alarming the mother. 

Location: Kosi Bay, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa 

Technical details: Canon EOS 5D Mark III + 17–40mm f4 lens; 1/320 at f7.1; ISO 640; Seacam housing

The unprotected, by Karine Aigner, USA 

(Winner, Photojournalist Story Award)

 Contestants line up to have their bobcats weighed in the March 2022 West Texas Big Bobcat Contest, the highest-paying predator-hunting contest in the USA. There are a number of prizes, one of which is for the heaviest bobcat. In 2022 the winner of that category took home $35,530.

For some people in the USA, hunting wildlife is a pastime. In Texas, while there are strict regulations covering ‘game’ species, certain predators such as bobcats, mountain lions and coyotes have no protection and can be killed at any time and by any means.

Location: Texas, USA

Technical details: Sony RX1R II + 35mm f2 lens; 1/40 at f8; ISO 1600 

Last breath of autumn, by Agorastos Papatsanis, Greece 

(Winner, Plants and Fungi)

Long fascinated by fungi, Agorastos used his silver photographic umbrella to stop his camera getting wet, and covered his carefully positioned flash with a plastic bag. The colourful touches come from refraction of the light passing through the spore-laden air currents and rain.

Parasol mushrooms release spores from the gills under their cap. Billions of tiny spores travel – usually unseen – in the air currents. Some will land where there is moisture and food, enabling them to grow networks under the forest floor. 

Location: Mount Olympus, Pieria, Greece 

Technical details: Nikon D810 + 105mm f2.8 lens; 1/40 at f36; ISO 500; Godox flash + trigger; Leofoto mini tripod

Last gasp, by Lennart Verheuvel, the Netherlands 

(Winner, Oceans)

Lennart Verheuvel shows the final moments of a beached orca. Lying on its side in the surf, this orca had only a short time left to live. Initially rescued, it soon was stranded again on the beach and died. A study later revealed that not only was it severely malnourished, it was also extremely sick. Research shows that orcas in European waters have the world’s highest concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). These banned chemicals can persist for many years in marine food webs.

Location: Cadzand-Bad, Zeeland, the Netherlands 

Technical details: Canon EOS R5 + 100–500mm f4.5–7.1 lens at 100mm; 1/80 at f7.1; ISO 1250

Whales making waves, by Bertie Gregory, UK 

(Winner, Behaviour: Mammals)

Bertie Gregory took two month-long expeditions searching for orcas. ‘We spent every waking minute on the roof of the boat, scanning,’ he says. 

After battling high winds and freezing conditions, he captured this remarkable behaviour with his drone. The orcas are preparing to ‘wave wash’ a Weddell seal.

These orcas belong to a group that specialises in hunting seals by charging towards the ice, creating a wave that washes the seal into the water. 

Location: Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica

Technical details: DJI Mavic 2 Pro + Hasselblad L1D-20c + 28mm f2.8 lens; 1/120 at f4; ISO 100

The dead river, by Joan de la Malla, Spain 

(Winner, Wetlands – The Bigger Picture)

Joan de la Malla provides a bird’s-eye view of the polluted Ciliwung river winding through Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. To find a time when lower air pollution allowed a clear view, Joan returned to the scene over several days.  Plastic rubbish, human waste, agricultural fertilisers and factory waste are suffocating the Ciliwung river. As a result, Jakarta’s residents are having to use groundwater for drinking water. This has resulted in widespread subsidence and the city is now sinking. 

Location: Ciliwung river, Jakarta, Indonesia

Technical details: DJI Mavic 2 Pro + Hasselblad L1D-20c + 28mm f2.8 lens; 1/25 at f6.3; ISO 100

The tourism bulldozer, by Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar, Mexico 

(Winner, Photojournalism)

Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar shows the devastating path of a new cross-country tourist railway line. To reach a point from where he could launch his drone, Fernando was guided through four kilometres (2.5 miles) of an underground cave system. 

The government-funded railway line connecting tourist destinations brings economic benefits to Mexico’s southeast, but it also fragments ecosystems, threatens protected reserves and archaeological sites, and impacts Indigenous peoples. While trains are a more environmentally friendly form of transport, conservationists warn of devastating consequences.

Location: Paamul, Quintana Roo, Mexico 

Technical details: DJI Mavic Mini 2 + 24mm f2.8 lens; 1/320 at f2.8; ISO 100

The tadpole banquet, by Juan Jesús Gonzalez Ahumada, Spain 

(Winner, Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles)

Juan Jesús Gonzalez Ahumada watches as toad tadpoles feast on a dead fledgling sparrow. The drama unfolded near Juan’s home when a newly fledged sparrow launched itself from a nest on his neighbour’s roof and fell into a nearby pond, where it drowned. 

Common toad tadpoles have varied diets consisting of algae, vegetation, and tiny swimming invertebrates. 

Location: Ojén, Málaga, Spain 

Technical details: Canon EOS R6 + 100mm f2.8 lens; 1/80 at f5.6; ISO 320; ring flash

• The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is open at the Natural History Museum in London from October 13, 2023 to June 30, 2024. For details and more photographs, see https://www.nhm.ac.uk/

The ‘golden horseshoe’, an otherworldly image of a rare golden tri-spine horseshoe crab accompanied by a trio of golden trevallies fish, has been chosen as the winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023 competition.

The winning image by French underwater photographer and marine biologist Laurent Ballesta was selected out of 49,957 entries from 95 countries.

The tri-spine horseshoe crab has survived for more than 100 million years but now faces habitat destruction and overfishing for food as well as for its blue blood used in the development of vaccines.

But in the protected waters off Pangatalan Island in the Philippines, there is hope for its survival.

‘To see a horseshoe crab so vibrantly alive in its natural habitat in such a hauntingly beautiful way was astonishing,” said Kathy Moran, chair of the jury and editor. “We are looking at an ancient species, highly endangered, and also critical to human health. This photo is luminescent.”

Laurent is only the second photographer in the competition’s 59-year history to be awarded the Grand Title award twice. He was first awarded Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2021 for his intriguing image of camouflage groupers exiting a milky cloud of eggs and sperm in Fakarava, French Polynesia.

The awarded photo and all the winners of the Natural History Museum’s prestigious contest were unveiled at an awards ceremony and will be exhibited at the flagship Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition that will open on October 13 at the Natural History Museum in London.

The newly-redesigned exhibition also features videos showing the impact wildlife photography can have and insights from jury members, photographers and Museum scientists to encourage visitors to advocate for the natural world.

Category winners

The 19 other astounding category winners, each judged anonymously by an international panel of experts for originality, narrative, technical excellence and ethical practice, showcase the rich diversity of life on Earth.

“Whilst inspiring absolute awe and wonder, this year’s winning images present compelling evidence of our impact on nature – both positive and negative,” said Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum. “Global promises must shift to action to turn the tide on nature’s decline.”

The exhibition will tour across Great Britain and internationally to venues including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, New Zealand and Singapore.

6oth anniversary

The 60th Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition will open for entries from photographers of all ages, nationalities and experience levels on October 16, 2023. Ahead of the anniversary, Wildlife Photographer of the Year has announced the international jury of industry experts, an entry fee waiver for more than 100 countries, changes to the competition’s rules and a new prize to further encourage hopeful stories of the natural world.

Amit Eshel witnessed a dramatic cliffside clash between two Nubian ibex against a breathtaking backdrop. The battle lasted for 15 minutes before one male surrendered, and the pair parted without serious injury.

In the run-up to the mating season in Israel’s Zin Desert, part of the males’ coat darkens and their neck muscles thicken. Rivals will rise up on their hind legs and ram their heads together. Their horns sometimes break as they collide.

Hadrien Lalagüe was gratified for his patience with a perfect alignment of grey-winged trumpeters watching a boa slither past.

Lalagüe set up his camera trap by a track in the rainforest surrounding Guiana Space Center between Kourou and Sinnamary in French Guiana. He spent the next six months maintaining the camera kit against high humidity, plastic-munching ants and damage by poachers. This image was his reward.

Trumpeters – named for their loud calls – spend most of their time foraging on the forest floor, eating ripe fruits, insects and the occasional small snake. The boa constrictor, some 10 feet long, could have made a meal of them.

In her Portfolio Story, Karine Aigner reports on the annual hunting competition of West Texas Big Bobcat, in March 2022 — America’s highest-paying predator-hunting contest as participants line up to have their bobcats weighed.

The 24-hour tournament is held three times a year from January through March. There are a number of prizes, one of which is for the heaviest bobcat. In 2022, the winner of that category took home $35,530.

For some Americans, hunting wildlife is a hobby. In Texas, while there are strict regulations covering ‘game’ species, certain predators such as bobcats, mountain lions and coyotes have no protection and can be killed at any time and by any means.

In this portfolio, Karine delves deep into the contests and festivals that celebrate the killing of these unprotected and maligned species, exploring their relationship with humans.

Agorastos Papatsanis reveals the magic of a fungus releasing its spores in the forest of Mount Olympus in Pieria, Greece. Long fascinated by fungi, Papatsanis used his silver photographic umbrella to stop his camera getting wet, and covered his carefully positioned flash with a plastic bag.

The colorful touches come from refraction of the light passing through the spore-laden air currents and rain. Parasol mushrooms release spores from the gills under their cap. Billions of tiny spores travel – usually unseen – in the air currents. Some will land where there is moisture and food, enabling them to grow networks under the forest floor.

Lennart Verheuvel shows the final moments of a beached orca. Stranded on its side in the surf, this orca had only a short time left to live on the Dutch coast at Cadzand-Bad in Zeeland.

Initially rescued, it soon was stranded again on the beach and died. A study later revealed that it was both severely malnourished and ill.

Research shows that orcas in European waters have the world’s highest concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls. These banned chemicals can persist for many years in marine food webs, weakening immune systems and reducing breeding success in whales, porpoises and dolphins.

Luca Melcarne makes the most of his mountain-guide skills to reveal the fascinating lives of Alpine animals. Born at the foot of the Vercors mountains in France, Melcarne is a professional mountain guide and nature photographer. He’s addicted to the cold, constantly watching the weather to make his plans.

To enable an early ascent into ibex territory, he had spent a bitterly cold night in a temporary shelter in the French Alps, having skied for six hours across the natural park.

His portfolio highlights the animals that live in France’s Rhône-Alpes Vercors Regional Natural Park, where Luca lives and works. His remarkable images demonstrate how patience, perseverance and passion are essential ingredients for dramatic wildlife photography.

Mike Korostelev reveals a hippopotamus and her offspring resting in the shallow clear water of a lake in South Africa’s Simangaliso Wetland Park. For more than two years, Korostelev has been visiting the hippos in this lake and knew they were accustomed to his boat.

He spent just 20 seconds under water with them – enough time to get this image from a safe distance and to avoid alarming the mother. Hippos produce one calf every two to three years. Their slow-growing population is particularly vulnerable to habitat degradation, drought, and illegal hunting for meat and ivory from their teeth.

Rachel Bigsby frames a gannet pair against the guano-painted curves of sandstone cliffs at Shetland, Scotland’s Noss National Nature Reserve. From her boat in turbulent sea swells, Bigsby realised that achieving her vision of showcasing gannets set against the towering cliffs would be tricky. But as the boat aligned with the rocks, she spotted this pair “isolated on a lower ledge, intertwining their necks and framed by streaks of guano.”

Each summer, the Isle of Noss hosts more than 22,000 northern gannets, which return to breed on the ledges carved by the elements. This species was hardest hit by the 2022 avian flu outbreak.

Vishnu Gopal recorded the moment a lowland tapir stepped cautiously out of the swampy Brazilian rainforest in Tapiraí, São Paulo. Finding hoofprints on a forest track near his campsite, Gopal waited nearby. An hour later, the tapir appeared. Using a long exposure and a flashlight to capture texture and movement, he framed the tapir’s side-turned head as it emerged from the forest.

Lowland tapirs rely on the forest for their diet of fruit and other vegetation and in turn the tapirs act as seed dispersers. This important relationship is threatened by habitat loss, illegal hunting and traffic collisions.

Bertie Gregory tracked a pod of orcas as they prepares to ‘wave wash’ a Weddell seal off a piece of sea ice and into the Antarctic water so they could eat it. The bubbles are thought to be part of the way they communicate with each other to form the waves.

Gregory took two month-long expeditions searching for orcas. ‘”We spent every waking minute on the roof of the boat, scanning,” he said. After battling high winds and freezing conditions, he captured this remarkable behavior with his drone.

These orcas belong to a group that specializes in hunting seals by charging towards the ice, creating a wave that washes the seal into the water. With rising temperatures melting ice floes, seals are spending more time on land, and the behavior of ‘wave washing’ may disappear.

Carmel Bechler discovered several barn owls in an abandoned concrete building near a busy road near Hof Hasharon, Israel. Bechler and his father used the family car as a hide. He made the most of the natural light and used long exposure times to capture the light trails of passing traffic.

Israel has the densest barn-owl population in the world. A national project has provided nesting boxes near agricultural fields, encouraging owls to nest near farmland. Because the owls hunt rodents that eat seeds and crops, this arrangement has reduced the use of pesticides on farms.

Ekaterina Bee shares her intimate encounter with some common bottlenose dolphins off the Isle of Skye on Scotland’s west coast.

From the boat, she composed this image that highlights the surface patterns on the water created by the dolphins’ movements. Common bottlenose dolphins can be found throughout the world’s oceans except in polar regions. Living in small groups, they are highly social animals, and are among the top marine predators living in Scottish waters.

Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar shows the devastating path of a new cross-country tourist railway line in Mexico. To reach a point from where he could launch his drone at Paamul, Quintana Roo, Martínez was guided through four kilometres of an underground cave system. The result of his challenging trek was this image.

The government-funded railway line connecting tourist destinations brings economic benefits to Mexico’s southeast but it also fragments ecosystems, threatens protected reserves and archaeological sites and impacts Indigenous peoples. While trains are a more environmentally friendly form of transport, conservationists warn of devastating consequences.

Joan de la Malla provides a bird’s-eye view of the polluted Ciliwung River winding through Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. To find a time when lower air pollution allowed a clear view, de la Malla returned to the scene over several days. His image documents one of the most polluted rivers in the world and illustrates the growing global issue of river pollution.

Plastic rubbish, human waste, agricultural fertilizers and factory waste are suffocating the Ciliwung. As a result, Jakarta’s residents must resort to groundwater for drinking water, triggering widespread subsidence — and the city is now sinking.

Juan Jesús Gonzalez Ahumada watched as toad tadpoles feasted on a dead sparrow. The drama unfolded near his home in Ojén, Málaga, Spain, when a newly-fledged sparrow launched itself from a nest on his neighbor’s roof and fell into a nearby pond, where it drowned.

Gonzalez had to pick his moment to show the tadpole formation and the sparrow’s eye. Common toad tadpoles have varied diets consisting of algae, vegetation and tiny swimming invertebrates. As they grow larger, they become more carnivorous. So when a banquet like this arrives, they take full advantage.

Knut-Sverre Horn offers a glimpse of kittiwake chicks and their parents illuminated in an abandoned factory at Vardø, Troms og Finnmark in Norway.

From his vantage point inside an abandoned fish-processing factory, Horn kept watch on the black-legged kittiwakes tending to their chicks on the windowsill. As midnight approached, the low summer sun struck the north-facing window, sharpening the birds’ silhouettes for the image he wanted.

Kittiwakes naturally nest on the narrow ledges of high, steep coastal cliffs. Recently, numbers have plummeted and some have headed for urban areas due to shortages of food caused by warming oceans and pollution.

Sriram Murali showcases a night sky and a forest illuminated with fireflies. “Searching for the stars near my hometown, Pollachi, led me to the forests of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve,” he explained. “As I moved away from town and its lights, the darker it got, the more I could see – fireflies, stars, like hundreds of fires.

The firefly flashes start at twilight, with just a few, before the frequency increases and they pulse in unison like a wave across the forest. Fireflies, which are in fact beetles, are famous for attracting mates by using bioluminescence. Darkness is a necessary ingredient in the success of this process. Light pollution affects many nocturnal creatures, but fireflies are especially susceptible.

An ornamental tree trunk spider prevents its prey from escaping. The young photographer captured this scene during his first visit to the tamarind grove at the temple in Nalluru, a small village on the outskirts of Bangalore that has beautiful carvings of Hindu god Krishna.

Fascinated by stories of the Hindu god, it seemed to Vikas as if the spider had positioned its web after being entranced by the sound of Krishna’s flute.

This spider is an orb weaver, which creates a wheel-shaped web of sticky threads to catch flying insects. As the spider grows, it elongates its web, which entangles anything that lands on it.