Inside the Pack by Amit Eshel/Wildlife Photographer of the Year
A dramatic stand-off between a lion and a cobra. An eye-level look at a pack of Arctic wolves. A lone Asian elephant wading through a landfill in Sri Lanka.
The Natural History Museum in London has released a sneak peek at the top photos in its annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, now in its 61st year. Judges will choose from a record-breaking 60,636 entries this year, judged anonymously by an international panel of experts in photography, filmmaking, science and conservation.
The top 100 photos will be showcased in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum, London, starting in October.
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Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025
Here’s a look at some of the top submissions for this year’s competition:
A solitary Asian elephant navigating a waste disposal site in Sri Lanka (Lakshitha Karunarathna, Sri Lanka/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) A red deer stag as it gives a mighty bellow during the autumn rut in Bradgate Park, UK. (Jamie Smart, UK/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) Emperor penguin chicks travelling at ice shelf edge before their first swim, Atka Bay, Antarctica (Bertie Gregory, UK/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) A brown-throated three-toed sloth clinging tightly to a barbed wire fence post (Emmanuel Tardy, France/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) A hard-working potter wasp mid-flight with caterpillar prey for its young (Bidyut Kalita, India/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) A dramatic stand-off between a lion and a cobra (Gabriella Comi, Italy/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) Longnose gars spawn in a crystal-clear Florida river (Isaac Szabo, USA/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) Clouds reflected in salt ponds that span San Francisco Bay (Jassen Todorov, USA/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) The remote wilderness of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia’s Far East (Kesshav Vikram, India/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) A greater flamingo in the act of scratching its head with one of its unmistakably long legs (Leana Kuster, Switzerland/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) A group of cheetahs after they’ve caught a Günther’s dik-dik in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya (Marina Cano, Spain/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) The amber eyes
of a male coyote within the black-tipped tail of a female (Parham Pourahmad, USA/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
Fruit bats leave their roost in the ruins of a historical monument. (Sitaram Raul, India/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) A line of alien-like slime molds on a fallen tree (Kutub Uddin, Bangladesh/UK/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) A mass or ‘smack’ of Pacific sea nettles in Monterey Bay, California (Ralph Pace, USA/Wildlife Photographer of the Year) An inquisitive pack of Arctic wolves (Amit Eshel, Israel/Wildlife Photographer of the Year When will the winners be announced?
What's next:
The category winners and the Grand Title and Young Grand Title awards will be announced on Tuesday, Oct. 14 at a ceremony, before the museum exhibition opens on Oct. 17.
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What they're saying:
"The exhibition will also help visitors understand how our planet’s habitats are changing," the museum said in a news release.
You can find more information and buy tickets to the exhibition on the Natural History Museum’s website.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London
The Source: This report includes information from the Natural History Museum, London's Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards.