Austrian photographer Josef Stefan has been crowned the winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2026 for an image of young Iberian lynx playfully hunting.
The award, run by the Natural History Museum in London, selected Stefan’s photograph from 23 shortlisted images chosen out of 60,636 entries from 113 countries.
Stefan’s image, titled Flying Rodent, captured a young Iberian lynx in Ciudad Real, Spain, playfully tossing a rodent for 20 minutes before it got bored and carried it behind a nearby bush to devour it.
While it’s common for lynxes to play with their prey before eating, Stefan explained that this one repeatedly threw the rodent high in the air and caught it again. To him, and to many viewers, it looks as if the rodent can fly.
Stefan described the win as the highlight of his photographic career.
“The journey to take this image was more than just another photographic adventure. It was the pursuit of a dream: encountering the Iberian lynx, one of the rarest and most endangered wild cats in the world. Winning this award and being able to platform this message is the highlight of my 30 years as a nature photographer.”
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“The Iberian lynx is a living symbol of hope, showing what can happen when we take responsibility, act consciously and focus our attention where it’s most needed.”
Many of the highly commended images in the People’s Choice Award were more sombre in tone, focusing on the plight of wildlife as human’s infiltrate their habitats.
These included young bears playing in front of car headlights, flamingos flying past power lines, a mother polar bear napping with her cubs and a sika deer carrying the interlocked severed head of a rival male that had died after their battle.