A hyena wandering through a deserted mining town and a beetle observing the devastation of its forest home have emerged as the champions of this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.
The two grand prize recipients, along with 19 category winners, were revealed on Wednesday by the Natural History Museum in London, which has hosted this competition for 61 years.
Wim van den Heever, a wildlife photographer from South Africa, was honored as the Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his image titled Ghost Town Visitor. This nighttime shot features a brown hyena amidst the ruins of an abandoned diamond mining town in Kolmanskop, Namibia. The hyena traverses this area while headed to the coast of the Namib Desert to hunt for cape fur seal pups.
Van den Heever discovered the tracks of this rare hyena species at Kolmanskop a decade ago and envisioned capturing such a moment. He consulted a local security guard who informed him that the animals appeared roughly every four to six weeks. “Every time I visited the ghost town, I would set up camera traps in hopes of success,” he shared while describing his photo. “It took me ten years to finally obtain this one perfect image of a brown hyena in an ideal frame. I was overjoyed.”
Andrea Dominizi earned the title of Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year with his photo After the Destruction, featuring a longhorn beetle in Lazio, Italy. (Andrea Dominizi/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
Italian photographer Andrea Dominizi claimed the title of Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year with his image “After the Destruction.” This close-up depicts a longhorn beetle on a moss-covered log, overlooking an abandoned logging machine in the Lepini Mountains of central Italy.
Shane Gross, a photographer from Nanaimo, B.C., was the only Canadian to win a category in 2025, having previously secured the grand title last year. He took home the award for “Animals in their Environment” with his photograph Like an Eel out of Water.
Gross captured this image while working with the non-profit Save Our Seas Foundation at D’Arros Island in the Seychelles archipelago. This island has recently been designated as a “no-take” marine protected area, prohibiting fishing and the collection of seashells.
The aim was to document the environmental changes before and after the area’s protection, the restoration efforts to replace coconut plantations with native flora, and the scientific monitoring of these changes.
Although the region is abundant in wildlife, including sharks, manta rays, nesting sea turtles, seabirds, and even giant tortoises being reintroduced, Gross recognized that these species have been extensively photographed.
Upon his arrival, he requested scientists to show him something extraordinary. They directed him to the peppered moray eels that were slithering along the shore to scavenge dead fish exposed at low tide.
“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s something I’ve never seen before,'” he recalled, and began photographing the small eels, which measured no more than two fingers thick. The creatures were quite timid, making it challenging for him to capture the desired shot during the expedition.
Peppered moray eels (Gymnothorax pictus) hunt in the intertidal zone, often fully emerging from the water during their search for food. This image was taken on D’Arros Island, Seychelles. (Shane Gross/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
Gross observed that the eels frequently encountered fish larger than themselves, and due to their lack of limbs, struggled to bite off pieces. Some would contort themselves into knots or rely on each other for support. He was intrigued by their remarkable ability to detect and smell their prey both above and beneath the water.
He hopes his photograph will encourage viewers to appreciate an animal that “isn’t typically on most people’s radar.”
Many marine protected areas permit fishing and are often created to safeguard specific species like sharks or sea turtles. He believes that this approach is insufficient: “Species require an ecosystem to thrive.” During his time on D’Arros Island, he noted the interdependence and connectivity among the species inhabiting the area; for instance, seabirds that catch fish at sea and subsequently transport nutrients over land, fertilizing plants with their guano.
A no-take marine protected area considers this dynamic and “protects everything, from top to bottom,” he stated, including creatures that often go overlooked, such as eels.
The award-winning photographs are part of a selection of 100 images chosen from over 60,000 submissions, which will be featured in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London starting this Friday.
Canadian audiences can view them in person at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto from November 8, 2025, to March 29, 2026.
