The 24 Stunning Finalists for Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award 2026
A juvenile sloth snoozes dreamily while tucked in the embrace of its mother, sheltered from pouring rain. A pod of spinner dolphins chases lanternfish. A crab hitches a ride on top of a glowing jellyfish in the dark, frigid waters of a night sea. A lion-tailed macaque races on a leaf-strewn charcoal road in India, gazing with its fierce, sapphire eyes dripping with curiosity. Each photograph tells a story that is as emotional as it is dramatic. While each of the 60,000 photographs submitted for the Nuveen People’s Choice Award is just as stunning, 24 of them have been shortlisted for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year prize this year, the world’s biggest nature photography competition, organized at the Natural History Museum in London.
If you are a wildlife enthusiast or simply a nature lover, you can scroll down the gallery of shortlisted photographs and vote for your favorite. Online voting for the public will close on March 18, and the winning image and the four runners-up will be announced on March 25.
1. Portrait of Extinction by Adam Oswell
Two khaki-clad officers stand in front of a towering pile of snares confiscated over the past few days to catch wildlife in Uganda.
2. Beauty Against the Beast by Alexandre Brisson
Flanked by grids of power lines on both sides, an open-air dump in Namibia welcomes a lush flock of pink flamingos while the skies shimmer in the sunset palette of peachy orange and light purple.
3. Family Rest by Christopher Paetkau
After a long journey along the Hudson Bay coast in Canada, a tawny-colored polar bear rests with her three plush-haired cubs. In a rare sight, the family dozes peacefully on a soil-covered mound bathed in golden summer heat.
4. Never-ending Struggle by Kohei Nagira
In this almost cinematic photograph, Kohei captured a still of a sika deer towing along the severed head of a rival male in Hokkaido, Japan. The two deer had been fighting over a female, and this one had won the fight but was unable to untangle his antlers.
5. Flying Rodent by Josef Stefan
The photograph captured a still from a 20-minute-long play in which a young lynx played with a tiny rodent. After it got bored, it threw the rodent in the air and then devoured it.
6. Above and Below by Charles Davis
A cheeky brushtail possum mirrors its mother in Miena, Tasmania, as she climbs on a cluster of branches spread out on a dark forest background.
7. Along for the Ride by Chris Gug
On a night in Indonesian waters, a cute crab hitched a ride on top of a glowing green jellyfish, probably as a platform to look for small fish to hunt.
8. Marvellous Spatuletail by Dustin Chen
The swinging, fountain-like tail of a male spatuletail hummingbird dangles from its iridescent body as it nudges its cobalt blue head upwards to slurp nectar from a cluster of purple flowers in Pomacochas, Peru.
9. Ready to Pounce by Joseph Ferraro
An ambush bug nymph, featuring a dotted lemon-green body, sits on a cluster of blood-red grasses in Michigan, gazing with its vile, reptilian eyes, seeking to inject its venom into prey.
10. Bond in Motion by Lalith Ekanayake
A curious long-tailed macaque and its baby venture on a road to explore the Western Ghats in India, and their stunning gaze gets captured on camera.
11. Couple’s Camouflage by Artur Tomaszek
An eager male spider sits on the abdomen of a female spider in Phuket, Thailand, ready to mate with her as soon as she molts to maturity.
12. Swirling Superpod by Cecile Gabillon
Within the blue bubbling depths of the Pacific Ocean near Costa Rica, a pod of spinner dolphins herds a school of lanternfish, guiding them towards the surface.
13. Uniqueness by Daniela Anger
A wide-eyed otter with a glossy, pale body and hairs jumping from the snout munches on a catfish while half submerged in a river in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.
14. Hold Me Tightly by Dvir Barkay
A three-toed adult female sloth cradles her baby sloth in her arms in Costa Rica, protecting it from the rain.
15. Solar Waves by Francesco Russo
In the trenches of a solar farm in Gloucestershire, England, a complex web of mustard-hued solar panels runs like a network of crisscrossing rivers rippling through the pastures.
16. Into the Furnace by Mogens Trolle
A velvety black sun bear takes shelter in a camping dump in the Kaeng Krachan National Park in Thailand, where it came to forage for a meal. As it rests, a blue butterfly sits on its snout.
17. A Fragile Future by Lance van de Vyver
After losing its mother, a rescued pangolin baby sleeps and rests on a dark blue blanket in a sanctuary in South Africa.
18. A Fleeting Moment by Lior Berman
An elusive rufous-vented ground cuckoo sits on a leafy patch of a rainforest in Costa Rica, slyly trapping a cicada in its beak, while its long feathers shimmer purple and blue.
19. The Final Portrait by Nima Sarikhani
After coming too close to people on the coast of the Svalbard archipelago, this cub's mother was found dead. This is probably the last photograph of the cub, as it was shot dead by the police because it seemed to be aggressive.
20. Dancing in the Headlights by Will Nicholis
A pair of young bear cubs in Jasper National Park, Canada, paint a silhouette in the glow of a car’s headlights while the surrounding forest basks in the shadows of twilight.
21. A Leap Into Adulthood by Peter Lindel
Three young kestrels sit on an exposed beam adjoining a brick wall of a hut-roofed house in Dortmund, Germany.
22. Beak-to-beak by Ponlawat Thaipinnarong
A tender red-headed Sarus crane plays with her yellow-bodied chick, feeding it with her beak in Buri Ram, Thailand.
23. Dark Knight by Prasenjeet Yadav
In a tiger reserve of Odisha, India, a rare tiger named T12 roams as the guardian of survival and hope. A genetic condition makes the stripes on its body turn unusually wider.
24. Precious Cargo by Thomas Hunt
A daddy longlegs spider in Southampton, England, travels with a big ball of her shimmery cream-colored eggs, intending to bring them to the safety of home.
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