snapping the world’s rarest hyena

A brown hyena standing beside the ruins of an deserted diamond mining settlement has earned wildlife photographer Wim van den Heever the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

He arrange his digicam entice after recognizing contemporary hyena tracks within the ghost city of Kolmanskop, Namibia. It took him ten years to get the shot, he mentioned.

The brown hyena, the rarest of all hyena species, is primarily nocturnal and tends to reside a solitary life. For years, Mr van den Heever searched the abandoned city, discovering solely traces of the elusive animal.

“I knew they were there, but actually photographing one was just never going to happen,” he says he thought.

He was awarded the prize at London’s Natural History Museum.

The annual exhibition devoted to the competitors opens on the Natural History Museum on 17 October.

Keep scrolling to discover the complete assortment of award-winning photographs.

Category: Junior Grand Prize and 15- to 17-year-old winner

Title: After the Destruction

Photographer: Andrea Dominizi, Italy

Location: Lepini Mountains, Lazio, Italy

While exploring the Lepini Mountains in central Italy, an space as soon as logged for its old-growth beech timber, Andrea noticed a beetle resting on a minimize log beside deserted equipment.

“This photo shows the story and challenge faced by many animal species: habitat loss,” he says. “In this case, it’s a beetle that loses the tree and the wood it needs to lay its eggs.”

Category: Animals of their Environment

Title: Like an Eel out of Water

Photographer: Shane Gross, Canada

Location: D’Arros Island, Amirante, Seychelles

After weeks of persistence, last year’s winner, Shane Gross, captured peppered moray eels scavenging for carrion at low tide.

He spent hours enduring the solar, warmth, and flies, ready the place useless fish had washed up. Eventually, three eels appeared.

Category: 10 Years and Under class

Title: The Weaver’s Lair

Photographer: Jamie Smart, UK

Location: Mid-Wales, UK

On a chilly September morning, Jamie Smart found an orb-weaver spider curled up inside its silken hideaway.

“It’s also quite special for me because I get to show something that people are usually afraid of,” she says.

Category: Wetlands: The Bigger Picture

Title: Vanishing Pond

Photographer: Sebastian Frölich, Germany

Location: Platzertal, Tyrol, Austria

Sebastian Frölich visited Austria’s Platzertal moorlands, a fragile wetland, to spotlight its important function as a carbon sink and a habitat for various wildlife, at a time when Austria has misplaced 90% of its peat bogs.

Category: 11–14 Years

Title: Alpine Dawn

Photographer: Lubin Godin, France

Location: Col de la Colombière, Haute-Savoie, France

During an early ascent, Lubin Godin discovered an Alpine ibex resting above a sea of clouds. He retraced his steps because the solar broke via and captured the scene earlier than the mist returned.

Category: Underwater

Title: Survival Purse

Photographer: Ralph Pace, USA

Location: Monterey Bay, California, USA

Battling sturdy currents, Ralph Pace captured this picture of a swell shark egg case, revealing a glowing embryo, full with gill slits and a yolk sac.

Swell sharks rely upon kelp to put their leathery eggs, making them susceptible to kelp forest loss. Researchers consider Monterey Bay’s kelp has declined by greater than 95 per cent up to now 34 years.

Category: Animal Portraits

Title: Shadow Hunter

Photographer: Philipp Egger, Italy

Location: Naturns, South Tyrol, Italy

Philipp Egger noticed this eagle owl’s nest from afar for greater than 4 years.

Among the world’s largest owls, eagle owls are about twice the load of buzzards. These nocturnal hunters nest on cliffs or in crevices and infrequently return to the identical website for a few years.

Category: Behaviour: Birds

Title: Synchronised Fishing

Photographer: Qingrong Yang, China

Location: Yundang Lake, Fujian Province, China

Qingrong Yang captured a ladyfish snatching prey simply beneath a bit egret’s beak.

He usually visits the lake to doc these frenzied feeding moments.

Category: Behaviour: Mammals

Title: Cat Amongst the Flamingos

Photographer: Dennis Stogsdill, USA

Location: Ndutu Lake, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania

Caracals are recognized for his or her acrobatic leaps to catch birds, however sightings of them looking flamingos are uncommon.

Category: Photojournalism

Title: How to Save a Species

Photographer: Jon A Juárez, Spain

Location: Ol Pejeta, Nanyuki, Laikipia County, Kenya

After years following the BioRescue Project, Jon A. Juárez witnessed a breakthrough in rhino conservation, the primary profitable switch of a rhino embryo to a surrogate mom.

Though the foetus of the southern white rhino, pictured right here, didn’t survive attributable to an infection, the milestone proved that IVF might work for rhinos, bringing scientists nearer to saving the critically endangered northern white rhino.

The BBC lined this unbelievable story and you can read about it here.

Category: Behaviour: Amphibians and Reptiles

Title: Frolicking Frogs

Photographer: Quentin Martinez, French Guiana

Location: Kaw Mountain, French Guiana

In heavy rain, Quentin Martinez adopted a flooded path to a pool in a forest clearing and captured the metallic sheen of lesser tree frogs gathering to breed.

Category: Photojournalist Story

Title: End of the Round-up

Photographer: Javier Aznar González de Rueda, Spain

Location: USA

Across the US, Javier Aznar González de Rueda explored society’s conflicted views of rattlesnakes from deep respect to concern and persecution.

See the other images in his winning portfolio here.

Category: Behaviour: Invertebrates

Title: Mad Hatterpillar

Photographer: Georgina Steytler, Australia

Location: Torndirrup National Park, Western Australia

Georgina Steytler showcased the gum-leaf skeletoniser caterpillar’s unusual tower of discarded head capsules. Each moult leaves a capsule behind, forming a stack thought to confuse predators.

Category: Oceans: The Bigger Picture

Title: The Feast

Photographer: Audun Rikardsen, Norway

Location: Kvænangen Fjord, Skjervøy, Norway

During a polar evening in Norway, Audun Rikardsen photographed gulls swarming round a fishing vessel, making an attempt to catch fish trapped in nets.

He goals to spotlight the battle between seabirds and the fishing business. Many birds drown in purse seine nets annually.

Category: Plants and Fungi

Title: Deadly Allure

Photographer: Chien Lee, Malaysia

Location: Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia

Some carnivorous pitcher crops mirror UV gentle as a part of their show, utilizing color, scent and nectar to lure prey. To illustrate this, Chien Lee used an extended publicity and UV torch.

Category: Rising Star

Title: Watchful Moments

Photographer: Luca Lorenz, Germany

Location: Germany

While Luca Lorenz was photographing mute swans on an city lake, a coypu photobombed his body.

See his other portfolio images here

Category: Natural Artistry

Title: Caught within the Headlights

Photographer: Simone Baumeister, Germany

Location: Ibbenbüren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

On a metropolis bridge, Simone Baumeister photographed an orb-weaver spider silhouetted towards visitors lights. By reversing one of many six glass components in her lens, she created the kaleidoscopic impact, framing the spider.

Category: Impact Award Winner 2025 & Highly Commended, Photojournalism

Title: Orphan of the Road

Photographer: Fernando Faciole, Brazil

Location: CETAS (Centro de Triagem de Animais Silvestres), Belo Horizonte, Brazil

At a rehabilitation centre in Brazil, Fernando Faciole photographed an orphaned large anteater pup trailing its caregiver.

His intention is to point out the implications of highway collisions, a significant menace to those animals.

Category: Portfolio Award

Title: Visions of the North

Photographer: Alexey Kharitonov, Israel/Russia

Location: Russia

A not too long ago frozen lake in Svetlyachkovskoye Swamp reveals snow-dusted darkish circles etched with crack-like veins.

Using a drone, Alexey Kharitonov captures the fast transition from summer season to winter throughout taiga forests and Arctic tundra.

See his other portfolio images here.