The world’s most prestigious nature photography competition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, is preparing to reveal its most captivating work yet. As a special preview of the upcoming exhibition, the awards have released a sneak peek of some of the most extraordinary images selected from 2025’s entries, celebrating the planet’s incredible biodiversity while spotlighting the many threats animals face.
Getting down onto the snow gave Amit an incredible wolf’s-eye view of an Arctic wolf pack. The dazzling colouration of the wolves allows them to blend in as they stalk the ice for snow hares and musk oxen.
Rutting Call by Jamie Smart
Every year, the red deer stags in Bradgate Park, UK, gather to compete for the females. As Jamie walked through the long grass, she had to stretch herself up tall to get just the right position to capture this stag as he raised his head to bellow.
Each deer sheds and regrows its antlers every year. The number of points on this male show that it is an experienced male who’s likely competed many times before.
Ice Edge Journey by Bertie Gregory
Bertie caught the moment when a group of fledgling emperor penguin chicks were about to take a 15-metre plunge from an ice cliff down into the freezing Antarctic Ocean.
Every year, penguin chicks have to make the perilous solo journey from the nesting grounds to the water’s edge. As the Antarctic warms because of the climate crisis, this journey is becoming more and more perilous.
Toxic Tip by Lakshitha Karunarathna
A solitary elephant navigates its way through a waste disposal site in Sri Lanka.
Lakshitha has been recording the conflict that arises between people and the roughly 7,500 elephants on the island. Unfortunately, this regularly includes those that forage for food among Sri Lanka’s open rubbish dumps.
Pink Pose by Leana Kuster
The extensive wetlands of Camargue in southern France are a haven for all kinds of waterbirds, including one of Europe’s most recognisable avian residents: the greater flamingo.
As Leana watched these elongated birds move gracefully through the shallows, she couldn’t miss the moment when one raised its long legs to sate an itch on its head.
Deadly Lesson by Marina Cano
This arresting image shows the brutal nature of how the world’s fastest land predator learns its survival skills.
Three young cheetah cubs had been practising how to hunt in Samburu National Reserve, Kenya, when one of them caught an unfortunate dik-dik antelope. Not long after Marina took this image, the little animal was quickly dispatched by the siblings.
Fragile River of Life by Isaac Szabo
By wrapping his feet around a drowned tree to stay steady, Isaac documented a scene that has been going on almost unchanged in Florida’s rivers for some 100 million years.
Longnose gar and their relatives have been around since the time of the dinosaurs, making this moment in which a female spawns in the crystal-clear waters all that more special.
Wake-up Call by Gabriella Comi
Two of Africa’s most impressive predators come face to face in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.
The scene unfolded in front of Gabriella, as a pair of sleeping lions were awoken by a cobra slithering towards them over the rocks. Within seconds, one of the cats was facing down the snake, giving Gabriella the perfect shot.
Jelly Smack Summer by Ralph Pace
Swimming through a mass, or ‘smack’, of jellyfish won’t appeal to many people. But for Ralph it provided the perfect setting for an other-worldly image of swarming sea nettles.
Smearing every bit of exposed skin with petroleum jelly, Ralph was able to float among the animals protected from their trailing stinging tentacles.
Nature Reclaims Its Space by Sitaram Raul
Sitting in total darkness as he could feel the bats flying all around him, Sitaram pointed his camera and focused it where he hoped the animals would be.
A flash of light reveals the chaotic flutter of fruit bats as they leave their roost in the ruins of a historical monument in Banda, India. No matter how big our urban structures, nature will eventually reclaim them.
Clouds of Gold by Jassen Todorov
The still waters of San Francisco’s salt ponds form a crystal-clear mirror, reflecting the rolling clouds and golden light above.
Salt has been collected in this region since the 1800s. In the last two decades, conservation projects have returned this intertidal environment to the salt marshes that were originally there.
Essence of Kamchatka by Kesshav Vikram
As the Iliinsky volcano rises in the background through a curtain of cloud on the Kamchatka Peninsula, a solitary brown bear strolls along the shoreline.
Despite striking a lonely figure on the beach, the bear was on its way to join many other members of its species. Every year the caldera lake is the spawning ground for stockeye salmon on which the bears gather annually to feast.
No Place Like Home by Emmanuel Tardy
Emmanuel waited for the crowds to disperse before taking this picture of a poor, confused brown-throated three-toed sloth. It had just crossed a road and made a beeline for the first thing that resembled a tree.
Unfortunately, as the sloth’s forest homes become more fragmented, more of them have to descend from the safety of the trees as they move around. The Costa Rican government is now working to help establish aerial bridges to protect them.
A Tale of Two Coyotes by Parham Pourahmad
Don’t be fooled by these wily coyotes, as there are actually two in this image taken in Bernal Heights Park, San Francisco.
While following this pair of siblings across the rocky hillside, Parham managed to get the perfect shot in which the brother’s amber eyes were framed by the sister’s black-tipped tail.
Slime Family Portrait by Kutub Uddin
Looking a little like blueberries on a stalk, these perfectly formed slime moulds caught the attention of Kutub as he was exploring Slindon Wood, UK.
Measuring just a couple of millimetres across, the moulds are actually a community of single-celled amoeba-like organisms that come together to find food and reproduce.
Special Delivery by Bidyut Kalita
Potter wasps are known to build a little chamber before filling it with paralysed prey for their developing larvae.
So when Bidyut spotted one of the wasps flying into home in Goalpara, India, he set about preparing the scene. Wedging a door open to give the wasp full access, he managed to photograph the exact moment it returned with a bright green caterpillar between its mouth and legs.
