Feast Your Eyes on a Selection of the Year’s Most Breathtaking Wildlife Photos

In this image—highly commended in the Under Water Category—several orange gobies blend in against the bright orange arms of a gorgonian sea fan. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.

The image above shows a deer shield mushroom—a wood-rotting fungus—spreading its spores.

Male caques are known to leap onto deer’s backs on Yakushima, an island of Japan, in an attempt to mate with them, according to a Natural History Museum release accompanying the photo release. In this case, the macaque was female (and so was the deer), in what appears to have been a joy ride rather than an attempt at mating. This image was highly commended in the Behavior: Mammals category.

This stunning shot shows the endangered Mediterranean monk seal off the coast of Greece. The animal is one of the rarest marine mammals in the world, according to NOAA, made rarer by hunting and human encroachment on its habitat. This photo was highly commended in the Natural Artistry category.

Highly commended in the Urban Wildlife category, this image shows a brushtail possum in Australia eating a cicada. In the possum’s midriff one can see a young possum in its parent’s pouch.

This action shot depicts a snow leopard hunting a Pallas’ cat in Gayi, Sichuan, China. Highly commended in the Behavior: Mammals category, it’s a rare shot of snow leopards hunting Pallas’ cats. Spoiler alert: this shot precedes the wild kitty getting caught (and presumably consumed) by the larger feline.

This image was taken in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, and shows a controlled fire on the park’s grasslands. In the background are two storks, searching for morsels to scavenge along the fire’s front lines.

A tragic scene unfolds in this shot, highly commended in the Photojournalism category. An elephant was hit by a train in Gabon’s Lopé National Park, shattering its hip. About 20 incidents occur between elephants and trains in the park each year, according to London’s Natural History Museum.

Highly commended in the Oceans: The Bigger Picture category, this photo depicts a fisherman dragging a sailfish across the beach in Ecuador. In the fisherman’s other hand is a severed sailfish head.

This shot of a bison kicking up snow is highly commended in the contest’s Animal Portraits category. The snow covers some of the bison’s massive frame, but conveniently frame’s the animal’s distinctive horn and deep brown eye.

This shot was selected to be highly commended in the Photojournalism section of the competition. A team from Polan’s Poznań Zoo are seen opening a crate containing a tiger cub rescued from Ukraine. Perhaps obviously, tigers are not native to Ukraine. But hundreds of the animals have been evacuated since Russia’s invasion of the country in February 2022.

This shot was selected to be highly commended in the Photojournalism section of the competition. The lurid image depicts a fox’s bloody face—injuries likely suffered by dogs unleashed by humans to ferret out the animal.

Shashwat Harish spotted (no pun intended) this leopard in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve. The image was selected to be highly commended from the 11-14 Years section of the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.

In this shot, a lone mason bee carries a piece of straw to add to its nest. This image was selected to be highly commended from the Behavior: Invertebrates section of the contest.

In this shot, a coot carries a loach—a small freshwater fish—across a frozen pond in Northeast China. This image was selected to be highly commended from the 10 Years and Under section of the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.