The power behind the world's best wildlife photos

The winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 have been announced, and the top prize has gone to an image that judges described as both heartbreaking and deeply revealing. Italian photographer Federico Veronesi captured the overall winning shot: a female elephant in Namibia's Huab River Valley carrying the body of a dead calf, its leg held between her tusk and trunk.

Veronesi came across the scene after noticing unusual drag marks across the sand of a dry riverbed. He initially believed the adult was the calf's mother. However, researchers who knew the individual elephant later told him that she had lost her own calf several years earlier and had been seen carrying dead calves belonging to other females before. For Veronesi, the experience was the most dramatic and emotionally powerful of his two decades photographing wildlife. He explained that he hopes the image encourages people to see animals as individuals with their own relationships, memories and feelings, describing it as a small window into the complexity of their world.

The competition, whose annual exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum in London on 16 October 2026, celebrates a wide range of subjects and techniques. Other award-winning entries this year show that powerful photographs can be made anywhere, from remote wilderness to a family garden. A young photographer named Davis, for instance, took a striking macro image of a common carder bumblebee in mid-air using her father's smartphone. Meanwhile, Whitfield lay in the dust in Zimbabwe to photograph a dung beetle at eye level, revealing the enormous effort required to push a ball of dung uphill through sand.

Several photographers used creative methods to achieve a distinct look. Lewin captured a dreamy, black-and-white image of a young bull elephant spraying zebras at a waterhole by using a camera converted to capture infrared light. Papatsanis, on the other hand, used ultraviolet light to illuminate tiny mushrooms growing on a decaying log on the slopes of Mount Olympus in Greece. These technical choices can transform an ordinary scene into something unexpected.

The winning images also highlight environmental changes and the relationship between humans and wildlife. Sanders photographed a common octopus peeking from behind kelp off the coast of south-west England, a species now seen there more frequently as springtime sea temperatures rise. Another image, taken by Forestson, shows a common water lizard in the foreground with a modern city skyline behind it, illustrating how some species adapt to urban environments. In San Francisco, where around 100 coyotes live alongside a large human population, Sorokin captured a coyote in the city, reflecting the mixed feelings residents have about these animals.

From the courtship ritual of Abbott's moray eels, photographed for what is believed to be the first time, to a whale shark investigating a mobile fishing platform at dawn, this year's winners demonstrate that a powerful wildlife photograph often combines patience, technical skill and a strong emotional or narrative core. As a result, the images invite viewers to look more closely at the natural world and consider their own connection to it.