A heartbreaking photograph displaying a sloth clinging tightly to a barbed wire fence after crossing a highway in Costa Rica is without doubt one of the successful/shortlisted photographs included in a sneak peek of the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitors.
The brown-throated three-toed sloth (Bradypus variegatus) was noticed by French photographer Emmanuel Tardy within the rural district of El Tanque, within the Alajuela Province. Traffic alongside the highway had slowed because the sloth crossed and made a beeline for the fence put up — the closest factor resembling a tree, in line with a statement from U.Okay.’s Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, which hosts the competitors yearly.
Tardy waited for crowds to disperse before taking the photograph, which is titled “No Place Like Home.” The image highlights the problems facing sloths in Costa Rica, where habitat fragmentation is forcing the creatures to spend more time on the ground as they move between trees, according to a statement from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year organizers emailed to Live Science. The country’s government is now working with nongovernmental organizations to introduce wildlife corridors to assist join them with their forest properties.
The sloth picture was launched alongside 15 different sneak peek photographs from 2025’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitors. Over 60,000 photographs have been entered this 12 months — the best variety of entries ever acquired.
A complete of 100 winners shall be chosen by a panel of judges and revealed on Oct. 14.
Other sneak peek photographs embody a standoff between a cobra and a lion within the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. Photographer Gabriella Comi, from Italy, captured this picture, dubbed “Wake-up Call,” after her information noticed the snake slithering towards a pair of sleeping lions. A feminine within the pair awoke abruptly and got here face-to-face with the snake, in line with the NHM assertion.
Related: Rocket-like jellyfish, regal Komodo dragon and harrowing whale rescue — see the beautiful Ocean Photographer of the Year 2025 finalists
In one other newly-released picture, titled “Nature Reclaims Its Space,” Indian photographer Sitaram Raul captured fruit bats leaving their roosts inside a historic monument in Banda, Maharashtra. He labored in darkness, counting on the digicam flash to seize the mass exodus, and mentioned that the bats have been “randomly pooping on me and the camera,” in line with the Wildlife Photographer of the Year assertion.
Other pictures embody an enormous mass of jellyfish off California, emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) strolling on the fringe of an ice shelf and an elephant navigating a “Toxic Tip” in Sri Lanka.
“As an advocate for the power of photography, there is nothing more rewarding or moving than seeing our relationship to the natural world, in all its complexity and splendour,” Kathy Moran, chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year jury, mentioned within the Wildlife Photographer of the Year assertion.
You can see the remainder of the primary look photographs under.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, Londo