World Nature Photography Awards 2026: Picture of ultra-rare white whale scoops high prize

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An picture of a uncommon white humpback whale calf and its mom received high prize on the 2026 World Nature Photography Awards.

Taken by Jono Allen, who acquired a money prize of $1,000, the Australian described the day he photographed the duo as “a memory that will live with me forever” and “a truly life-changing encounter.”

Albinism amongst humpback whales is extraordinarily uncommon, with as few as one in 40,000 born with the situation, which impacts pores and skin pigmentation. The calf Allen photographed, referred to as Mãhina, was first spotted in the summer of 2024, in Vava’u, Tonga, the place Allen additionally noticed it. The whale’s identify means “moon” in Tongan.

Humpback whale populations are growing based on the newest evaluation by the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, which describes it as a species of “least concern.” Its restoration is put right down to a curbing of economic whaling within the 20^th and 21^st century.

Though its inhabitants has elevated to round 135,000 as of 2018, the humpback whale is experiencing modifications, together with shifts in its epic migration within the southern hemisphere. Scientists say whales are migrating weeks earlier than in earlier many years on account of a warming Southern Ocean affecting meals provides.

The World Nature Photography Awards acquired entries from 51 international locations. Other class winners included a feminine gorilla observing a butterfly in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda, a Namaqua chameleon weathering a sandstorm within the Namid Desert, Namibia, and a polar bear investigating a pile of e-waste in Manitoba, Canada. Entries for subsequent 12 months’s prize are already being accepted.