A low-angle view of a polar bear peering into a hole in the ice, as if through a window to a seal, is one of the most striking works on the shortlist for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 competition. Norwegian photographer Audun Rikardsen set up an underwater camera and waited eight hours for the predator to leave. This scene reveals not just the curiosity of the Arctic giant, but the fine line between hunter and prey in a world where ice melts faster than species can adapt.
Next to the polar bear is a squirrel that escaped from a young cheetah up a tree in the Okavango Delta. Photographer Allegra Hutton captured the moment when the predator, having failed to catch its prey, clumsily climbs down. For cheetahs, whose cubs survive less than half the time, such failures are part of the daily struggle for existence in the savannah, where every leap decides a fate.
Other finalists show equally dramatic moments: an orca carrying the body of a dead calf through a Norwegian fjord; a chameleon in a sandstorm in the Namib Desert; millions of red-billed queleas taking off to water at sunset in Kenya. Each photograph is not just a shot, but a window into animal behavior that scientists are only beginning to understand more deeply.
The competition, organized by the Natural History Museum in London, annually gathers thousands of entries from around the world. This year's shortlist highlights how wildlife penetrates even cities — a Japanese toad on a Tokyo street or swifts over a London park. These images remind us that the boundary between 'wild' and 'human' is ever thinner.
The photographs not only capture beauty but also document the vulnerability of ecosystems. An orca trying to 'revive' its calf, or a vulture over the carcass of a caiman with a suspicious wound from a boat — evidence of how human activity weaves into natural cycles. According to research, such cases are becoming more noticeable as the climate changes and infrastructure expands.
The competition's finalists show that nature is full of unexpected alliances and confrontations: a hornbill cleaning a rhino, or a mosquito on the head of a venomous snake. These fleeting encounters reveal complex webs of interdependence, where each species plays its role in maintaining balance.
The best images in the competition remind us that careful observation of wildlife helps us better understand and protect it.
