The world's premier wildlife photography competition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, has released a sneak preview of its 61st annual competition, which will be featured in a major exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London starting Friday, October 17, 2025. This year's competition received a record-breaking 60,636 entries from photographers around the globe, marking the highest participation in the competition's history.
The upcoming exhibition will showcase 100 inspiring and powerful images capturing the beauty and complexity of the natural world. An international panel of expert judges evaluated all submissions anonymously, assessing each photograph based on creativity, originality, and technical excellence. The judging panel included specialists from wildlife photography, filmmaking, science, and conservation fields.
Among the newly released preview images are several standout photographs that demonstrate the exceptional quality of this year's entries. Gabriella Comi captured a dramatic confrontation between a lion and a cobra, while Amit Eshel presented a striking portrait of a curious pack of Arctic wolves. The preview also features breathtaking photographs of flamingos, coyotes, and red deer taken by some of today's most promising young wildlife photographers, including participants as young as nine years old.
The competition's award ceremony will take place on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, at the Natural History Museum, where the category winners and the prestigious Grand Title and Young Grand Title awards will be announced. Wildlife television presenters and conservationists Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin will host the ceremony, which will be broadcast live on the Natural History Museum's YouTube channel for global audiences.
This year's exhibition introduces an innovative educational component by incorporating the Natural History Museum's groundbreaking Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) alongside the award-winning photographs. The BII measures how much of a region's natural biodiversity remains intact on a scale from 0 to 100, providing visitors with crucial context about habitat changes affecting the environments featured in the photographs. This metric has been adopted as an official Global Framework Biodiversity indicator for decision-making and serves as an essential tool for understanding, monitoring, and communicating biodiversity changes worldwide.
Kathy Moran, Chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Jury, expressed her enthusiasm about this year's selection. "Selected from a record-breaking over 60,000 images, this preview presents just a small insight into the 100 awe-inspiring, impactful and moving images in store for visitors to our exhibition in October," she said. "As an advocate for the power of photography, there is nothing more rewarding or moving than seeing our relationship to the natural world, in all its complexity and splendor, shared on the world's biggest platform for wildlife photography."
Dr. Doug Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum, highlighted the significance of the competition's 61st year. "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," he stated. "With the inclusion of our Biodiversity Intactness Index, this year's exhibition will be our best combination of great artistry and groundbreaking science yet, helping visitors to become inspired to be advocates for our planet."
Tickets for the 61st edition of Wildlife Photographer of the Year are currently on sale, with the exhibition running from Friday, October 17, 2025, through Sunday, July 12, 2026, at the Natural History Museum in London. Adult tickets start at $22.50 (£18.00), with concession tickets available for $18.00 (£14.40) and child tickets for $11.25 (£9.00). Off-peak pricing offers reduced rates, with adult tickets from $19.40 (£15.50), concession tickets for $15.50 (£12.40), and child tickets for $9.70 (£7.75). The exhibition operates Monday through Sunday from 10:00 AM to 5:50 PM, with last admission at 4:30 PM.
Following its London premiere, the exhibition will embark on both UK and international tours, aiming to inspire millions of people worldwide to appreciate and conserve the natural world. The exhibition is supported by lead corporate sponsor Nuveen, a global investment leader managing public and private assets for clients around the world. Additionally, Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio 35, edited by Keith Wilson with a foreword by Kathy Moran, is available for pre-order and will be published on October 15, 2025, with a recommended retail price of approximately $35.00 (£28.00).
