Haunting hyena wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest

A hyena wandering through an abandoned mining town and a beetle sitting to watch the destruction of its forest habitat are the winners of the year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.

The two grand prize winners and 19 category winners were announced on Wednesday by the Natural History Museum of London, which has participated in the competition for 61 years.

South African wildlife photographer Wim van den Heever earns Wildlife Photographer of the Year title Ghost Town VisitorsNight time photo of a brown hyena amidst the ruins of an abandoned diamond mining town in Kolmanskop, Namibia. This species passes through on the way to the Namib Desert coast to hunt Cape fur seal pups.

Van den Heever saw the world’s rarest hyena footprints at Kolmanscope a decade ago and dreamed of capturing the sight. He spoke to a local security guard, who said that the animals come approximately every four to six weeks. ,Every time I visited the ghost town I used to set camera traps in the hope of success,” he recalled in his description of the photo. ”It took me 10 years to finally get this single image of the brown hyena in the most perfect frame imaginable. I was very happy.”

Italy’s Andrea Domizzi won Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year with “After the Destruction.” This is a close-up of a longhorn beetle on a mossy log looking at an abandoned machine from a logging operation in the Lepini Mountains of central Italy.

Nanaimo, BC photographer Shane Gross, Who Won the grand title of the competition last yearRThe only Canadian category winner was in 2025, who captured “animals in their environment” with their photo like a fish out of water,

Gross said he took the photo while working for the nonprofit Save Our Seas Foundation on the island of D’Aros in the Seychelles archipelago in Africa. The island was recently established as a “no-take” marine protected area, where fishing or even the collection of shells is not permitted.

The goal was to document changes occurring before and after protection, the effects of restoration to replace coconut plantations with native vegetation, and the work of scientists to monitor the changes.

While the area is rich with wildlife such as sharks, manta rays, nesting sea turtles, sea birds and even giant tortoises that are being reintroduced, Gross acknowledged that these animals have been widely photographed.

So when he first arrived there, he asked the scientists to show him something unique. He pointed her towards the peppered moray eel that had been slithering ashore to pick up dead fish that had washed up at low tide.

“I thought, ‘Wow, this is something I’ve never seen before,'” he recalled, and thought about catching tiny fish, no more than two fingers thick. The animals became extremely shy, and it took almost an entire expedition to get the shot they wanted.

Gross said that eels often encounter fish larger than themselves, and because they lack arms, they have trouble cutting off pieces. Some people will tie themselves into knots or rely on each other for leverage. He was impressed by the amazing ability of fishes to see and smell their prey above and below water.

He hopes the photo will allow viewers to appreciate an animal that “isn’t on most people’s radar.”

Many marine protected areas allow fishing, he said, and are often established to protect specific species such as sharks or sea turtles. He believes this is not good enough: “Species need an ecosystem to live.” While on the island of D’Aros, he observed the interdependence and interconnectedness of the species living there; For example, sea birds that hunt fish in the ocean, and then bring those nutrients to land, fertilize plants with their guano.

A no-take marine protected area takes this into account and “protects everything from top to bottom,” including animals we don’t think about, like eels, he said.

The winning photos are among 100 selected from more than 60,000 entries to be displayed in an exhibition opening at the Natural History Museum in London this Friday.

Canadians can see them in person at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto from November 8, 2025 to March 29, 2026.