Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026: elephant carrying dead calf wins top prize

Mixed · 2Italian photographer Federico Veronesi won Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 with an image of a female elephant carrying a dead calf. 1 2 Mixed · 2Veronesi was tracking elephants in Namibia's Huab River Valley when he saw unusual drag marks across a dry riverbed. Following them, he found the female with the calf's leg wedged between her tusk and trunk. 1 2 Centre · 1Veronesi first assumed the elephant was the calf's mother, but researchers from an elephant project in the area told him this was uncertain. They recognised her as a female who had lost a calf several years earlier and had previously picked up dead calves belonging to other females. 1

Centre · 1Veronesi called it the most "heart-wrecking and fascinating and dramatic" encounter of his 20 years photographing animals. He hopes it will encourage people to see animals as individuals with relationships, memories and emotions. 1 Left · 1Jury chair Kathy Moran said the picture "says it all". She called it "a gut punch" emotionally and, intellectually, "proof that animals have cognition". 2 Left · 1The Mirror notes that death-related behaviours have been seen in both Asian and African elephants, including guarding the dead and carrying the deceased. It says some researchers see them as a step towards understanding death, while others read them as possible grief. 2

Mixed · 2The competition is run by the Natural History Museum. The Mirror says it drew over 65,000 entries, judged anonymously by a panel of seven experts on creativity, technical excellence and originality. The annual exhibition opens at the museum on Friday 16 October 2026. 2 1 Mixed · 2Oscar Whitfield, who is Zimbabwean and British and aged 14, won the Young Grand Title and the 11 to 14 Years category. His black-and-white image shows a dung beetle pushing a ball of dung uphill; he lay in the dust near Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, to shoot at eye level. 2 1 Centre · 1Amelie Davis of the UK photographed a common carder bumblebee mid-wingbeat in her garden using her dad's smartphone. 1

Mixed · 2Other winners include Loren Elliott's Photojournalist Story Award images of San Francisco's urban coyotes. They also include James Lewin's infrared shot of a bull elephant spraying zebras in Kenya's Chyulu Hills, and Aaron Sanders' octopus behind kelp off Cornwall, which the BBC links to warming spring sea temperatures. 1 2 Mixed · 2Further winners include Isak Pretorius's shoebill storks in Uganda, Tony Wu's Abbott's moray eel courtship in Japan, Francisco Negroni's dead puma displayed as a trophy in Argentine Patagonia, Alex Visbal's pink-tinged Great Salt Lake wetland, and Alex Lindbloom's drone image of a whale shark at a Papua fishing platform. 1 2