- Published
An emotional scene of an elephant carrying a deceased calf has earned Italian photographer Federico Veronesi the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026.
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scene → publish → Year
While tracking elephants in Namibia's Huab River Valley, Veronesi spotted an unusual trail of drag marks across the sand of a dry riverbed.
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Veronesi → track → riverbed
Following the tracks, he came across a female elephant carrying a dead calf, its leg wedged between her tusk and trunk.
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leg → follow → tusk
Initially, Veronesi assumed the elephant was the calf's mother.
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elephant → assume → ?
But after sharing his photographs with an elephant research project working in the area, he learned that this wasn't certain.
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this → share → area
Researchers recognised the elephant as a female who had lost a calf several years earlier and said she had previously picked up dead calves belonging to other females.
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she → recognise → females
"Of all the 20 years I've done photographing animals, this is the most heart-wrecking and fascinating and dramatic," he said, describing it as "revealing of the depth and complexity of the emotions, the feelings of the animals.
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he → do → animals
He hopes the image will encourage people to look beyond animals' physical appearance and recognise them as individuals with their own relationships, memories and emotions.
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image → hop → relationships
"It's a small window that opens just a crack into the complexity of their world," he said.
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he → open → world
The competition's annual exhibition, external opens at the Natural History Museum on Friday 16 October 2026.
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exhibition → open → Friday
Labour of love
Category: Young Grand Title and 11 to 14 Years
Photographer: Oscar Whitfield, Zimbabwe/UK
Location: Zambezi National Park, Zimbabwe
Only by lying in the dust and capturing the beetle at eye level could Whitfield show how much strength its task required.
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task → lie → strength
While on a family game drive in Zimbabwe, near his home in Victoria Falls, he spotted the dung beetle struggling to push a ball of dung uphill through the sand, with a trail of flies following closely behind.
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trail → spot → flies
After experimenting with different angles and compositions, he captured a moment that reveals the extraordinary effort involved in this seemingly simple task.
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that → experiment → task
"I hope that when people look at the photograph, they can see too, and maybe appreciate how much can be happening in a small moment in the natural world," says Whitfield.
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Whitfield → hope → world
Flight of the Bumblebee
Category: 10 Years and Under
Photographer: Amelie Davis, UK
Location: Surrey, England
You do not need a camera or a plane ticket to take an award-winning photo.
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You → need → photo
Davis captured this shot in the garden using her dad's smartphone.
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Davis → capture → smartphone
The image freezes in time a single wingbeat from a common carder bumblebee as it prepares to land on a flower.
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it → freeze → flower
Lewin captured this dreamy, black-and-white photo of a young bull elephant spraying zebras at a waterhole.
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Lewin → capture → waterhole
He softened the usually harsh light by using a camera converted to infrared.
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He → soften → infrared
A Watchful Eye
Category: Animal Portraits
Photographer: Aaron Sanders, UK
Location: Porthkerris Beach, Cornwall
Common octopuses are usually found in the warmer Mediterranean Sea.
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octopuses → find → Sea
But with global warming pushing up springtime sea temperatures, sightings across south-west England have massively increased.
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sightings → push → England
Sanders described the moment he spotted a single eye peeking from behind the kelp: "We remained perfectly still, watching one another with a seemingly shared curiosity."
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We → describe → curiosity
Scenes from the Swamp
Category: Birds
Photographer: Isak Pretorius, South Africa
Location: Mabamba Swamp, Uganda
Fewer than 5,300 mature shoebill storks are estimated to remain in the wild.
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storks → estimate → wild
Yet Pretorius, while canoeing with a guide, was able to capture these two – likely a breeding pair collecting material for their nest.
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Pretorius → canoe → nest
Despite their name, shoebill storks are actually more closely related to pelicans, herons and ibises.
Birdsong Painted in Light
Category: 15-17 Years
Photographer: Konrad Gräeter, Germany
Location: Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Spring sees male blackbirds search for high vantage points to sing and try to attract a mate.
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blackbirds → paint → mate
This photo was taken in a vineyard at dawn, when the birds sing their most complex compositions.
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birds → take → compositions
Urban Jungle
Category: Urban Wildlife
Photographer: Seth Forestson, UK
Location: Lumphini Park, Bangkok, Thailand
Forestson lowered himself onto the mud to capture this common water lizard against the city skyline.
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Forestson → lower → skyline
These adaptable lizards live in cities across South and South East Asia and will take whatever food is available, such as catfish and koi.
Making Morays
Category: Under Water
Photographer: Tony Wu, USA/Japan
Location: Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyūshū, Japan
This is probably the first time the courtship ritual of Abbott's moray eels has been photographed, the NHM said.
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NHM → live → eels
Wu worked with biologists and used dim red light and a customised fisheye lens to minimise disturbance.
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Wu → work → disturbance
Wily Coyotes of San Francisco
Category: Photojournalist Story Award
Photographer: Loren Elliott, USA
Location: USA
San Francisco is estimated to be home to around 100 coyotes, living alongside a large human population.
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Francisco → estimate → population
While they can prey on domestic animals, they also help control disease-carrying rodents, and residents' attitudes towards them are mixed.
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attitudes → prey → them
Protective Pose
Category: Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles
Photographer: Anton Sorokin, US
Location: Contra Costa County, California, USA
Sorokin dipped his camera and lights in a murky pond to catch this glimpse of a California newt laying her eggs.
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Sorokin → dip → eggs
Shifting Sand
Category: Behaviour: Invertebrates
Photographer: Sitaram Raul, India
Location: Thar Desert, Rajasthan, India
A scorpion is photographed burrowing into the shifting dunes of India's Thar Desert.
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scorpion → shift → Desert
Exploring the dunes at night, Raul saw many scorpions searching for prey but as temperatures rose after sunrise, the scorpion dug into the sand to escape the intense heat.
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scorpion → explore → heat
Night-Time Catch
Category: Oceans: The Bigger Picture
Photographer: Alex Lindbloom, USA
Location: Off Cenderawasih Bay, Papua, Indonesia
A whale shark investigates the catch of a mobile net-fishing platform, known as a bagan.
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shark → investigate → bagan
Lindbloom searched for sharks around dawn, using the bagan's bright lights to illuminate them when there was too little natural light for his drone.
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Lindbloom → search → drone
Papatsanis used ultrviolet light to illuminate mushrooms known as "beautiful bonnets" growing from a decaying log on the lower slopes of Mount Olympus in Greece.
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Papatsanis → use → Greece
Category: Rising Star Award
Photographer: Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, Germany
Location: Germany and Northern Ireland, UK
Tinker-Tsavalas uses macro photography to reveal the intricate details of tiny animals that are easily overlooked, particularly in urban habitats.
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that → use → habitats
His interest in macro photography developed during the Covid-19 lockdowns, when he was restricted to habitats close to his home in Berlin.
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he → develop → Berlin
Category: Natural Artistry
Photographer: Michał Michalski, Poland
Location: Litochoro, Pieria, Greece
Michalski used a slow shutter speed to photograph birds flying across a background of leafless birch trees.
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Michalski → use → trees
…and 6 more, not listed.
The Aporia
