Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Ghostly shot of hyena wins high award

An picture of a uncommon hyena standing in entrance of an deserted constructing in a former diamond mining city in Namibia has gained the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 award.

Shot by South African photographer Wim van den Heever within the city of Kolmanskop, “Ghost Town Visitor” is the product of 10 years’ work utilizing digicam lure know-how, in accordance with an announcement from the organizers on Tuesday.

The {photograph}, which was one in every of 60,636 entries, reveals a brown hyena – a member of the rarest hyena species on the planet.

Nocturnal and largely solitary, brown hyenas are not often seen, so van den Heever began to make use of a digicam lure after noticing their tracks within the space.

Kathy Moran, chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year jury, stated that the picture confirmed how wildlife had repopulated a city deserted by people.

“How fitting that this photograph was made in a ghost town,” she stated within the assertion.

“You get a prickly feeling just looking at this image and you know that you’re in this hyena’s realm.”

Jury member Akanksha Sood Singh added that the “image is an eerie juxtaposition of the wild reclaiming human civilisation.”

“The image is haunting yet mesmerising because the solitary hyena takes centre stage as a symbol of resilience amid the decay,” she stated.

Italian photographer Andrea Dominizi gained the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025, for entrants aged 17 and below, along with his picture of a longhorn beetle that seems to be surveying deserted logging equipment.

Named “After the Destruction,” Dominizi took the {photograph} within the Lepini Mountains in central Italy, which have been as soon as a supply of outdated beech bushes.

“A compelling, but harrowing photograph, it’s one that encourages the viewer to contemplate the nature of this fraught relationship,” stated jury member Andy Parkinson of Dominizi’s image.

The award organizers additionally highlighted the Impact Award, which was gained by Brazilian photographer Fernando Faciole for his picture of an orphaned big anteater pup following a human caregiver.

In addition, the jury chosen 19 class winners. These photographs will characteristic in an exhibition that may open on the Natural History Museum in London on Friday.

“Now in its sixty-first year, we are thrilled to continue Wildlife Photographer of the Year as a powerful platform for visual storytelling, showing the diversity, beauty and complexity of the natural world and humanity’s relationship to it,” stated museum director Doug Gurr within the assertion.

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