{"id":611434,"date":"2026-09-01T18:12:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T18:12:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/611434\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T18:12:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T18:12:27","slug":"chilling-moment-polar-bear-gazes-down-at-prey-among-16-incredible-images-from-the-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/611434\/","title":{"rendered":"Chilling moment polar bear gazes down at prey among 16 incredible images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

A breathtaking scene of a polar bear peering into an ice hole is one of the shortlisted images for the Natural History Museum\u2019s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.<\/p>\n

After spotting tracks near a hole in Arctic sea ice north of Svalbard, Norwegian photographer Audun Rikardsen set up a motion-sensor underwater camera. It took eight hours to finally capture the moment a polar bear gazed down in search of prey. The image, titled Icy Window, has been awarded Highly Commended in the Animal Portraits category in the competition\u2019s 62nd year.<\/p>\n

The overall winners of the competition will be announced at a ceremony hosted by Chris Packham<\/a> and Megan McCubbin<\/a> on Tuesday 13 October 2026, which will be available to watch live on the Natural History Museum\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/p>\n

An exhibition of the winning photographs<\/a> will open at the museum on Friday 16 October 2026.<\/p>\n

Other commended images this year include a black bear going for a dip in a Californian swimming pool, an adult orca attempting to revive its calf and a mosquito drinking a highly venomous viper\u2019s blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year I think the entries to our competition can\u2019t get any stronger \u2013 and every year I\u2019m proven wrong!\u201d says Kathy Moran, chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Jury.<\/p>\n

\u201cSelected from a record-breaking 65,403 images, this preview presents just a small insight into the 100 incredible images in store for visitors to our exhibition. These images pave the way for a deepened appreciation and commitment to our natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 images<\/p>\n

Up a Tree without a Squirrel by Allegra Hutton
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Mammals\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"UpAllegra Hutton watches a young leopard chase a squirrel up a tree in\u00a0Botswana\u2019s Okavango Delta.\u00a0Allegra had already watched the leopard try \u2013 and fail \u2013 to stalk a rabbit. The squirrel also avoided the leopard\u2019s clumsy manoeuvres, eventually ascending too high for the leopard to follow. By then, the cat could barely hang on. An awkward backward retreat ensued.\u00a0 – Allegra Hutton \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Biting Back by Andrea and Maceo Grammatico
Highly Commended, Animal Portraits\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BitingTwins Andrea and Maceo describe this image as \u2018one of the most demanding focus stacks we\u2019ve ever created\u2019. But it wasn\u2019t until they reviewed their photographs that they noticed the mosquito on the fer-de-lance\u2019s head.\u00a0It is a highly venomous viper that is responsible for the greatest number of fatal snake bites in Central America. – Andrea and Maceo Grammatico \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Wings of Darkness by\u00a0Andrew\u00a0Parkinson
Highly Commended, Animal Portraits\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"WingsAndrew\u00a0Parkinson spotted a black vulture over the carcass of a yacar\u00e9 caiman in the Pantanal wetlands\u2019s Waters State Park (in Brazil) and\u00a0used a long telephoto lens to capture the moment. Out of frame, a jaguar waited to retrieve the caiman from the water. – Andrew Parkinson \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Flock of Gold by Bence M\u00e1t\u00e9
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Birds\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Flock\u2018You could feel the rush of air from tens of thousands of wings beating in unison, even from 30 metres (98 feet) away,\u2019 says M\u00e1t\u00e9. This image of a flock of red-billed queleas was captured in the golden light of a late afternoon, in Kenya\u2019s Tsavo East National Park. – Bence M\u00e1t\u00e9 \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Eye of the Storm by\u00a0Dewald Tromp
Highly Commended, Animals in their Environment\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"EyeA storm picked up as\u00a0Dewald was photographing this Namaqua chameleon in the Namib Desert. It soon became difficult to breathe\u00a0and\u00a0\u2018in a matter of seconds, you could hardly see the person next to you\u2019,\u00a0Dewald recalls.\u00a0\u00a0 – Dewald Tromp \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Mutual Friends by\u00a0Ernest\u00a0Porter
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Birds\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MutualWhile searching for wildlife in the Manyeleti Game Reserve (in Mpumalanga, South Africa), Ernest witnessed a group of white rhinos with red-billed oxpeckers feeding on the insects that infest their skin. – Ernest Porter \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Hidden Dragon by\u00a0Gil\u00a0Wizen
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Invertebrates\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"HiddenAt only 15 millimetres long, this lichen dragon katydid (a nocturnal insect) wasn\u2019t easy to find. Luckily, Wizen was able to spot it when it moved ever so slightly. – Gil Wizen \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

The Art of Flying by\u00a0Jack\u00a0Crockford
Highly Commended, 15\u201317 Years\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheJack observed swifts flying overhead near London\u2019s Heathrow Airport, completing their yearly migration from southern Africa. While most were flying too high to photograph, the occasional low-flyer allowed Crockford to capture the composition he\u2019d been hoping for. – Jack Crockford \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Split-Second Escape by\u00a0Jens\u00a0Cullmann
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Amphibians\u00a0and\u00a0Reptiles\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Split-SecondCullmann noticed tadpoles on a previous visit to Botswana\u2019s Central Kalahari Game Reserve after heavy rains and returned the following month to find ponds and puddles full of young bullfrogs. He spent more than two weeks watching the young frogs \u2018eat everything that moved\u2019. Here, he captures a close call. – Jens Cullmann \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Pooltime Pastime by\u00a0Loren\u00a0Elliott
Highly Commended, Urban Wildlife\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PooltimeA black bear cools off by taking a dip in a backyard swimming pool behind a home nestled against the San Gabriel Mountains in Monrovia, California. \u2018I most like how it shows the very common overlap of wildlife\u00a0and\u00a0residential living in Los Angeles County,\u2019 Eliot says. – Loren Elliott \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

The Show Goes On by\u00a0Pietro\u00a0Rojas
Highly Commended, Photojournalism\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"TheMany countries around the world have banned animals from circus performances, but when Rojas noticed that a circus with animal acts was coming to Doha (Qatar\u2019s capital city), he decided to document it. He explained that \u2018the contrast between the wild nature of the animal and the human environment imposed upon it\u2019 stood out to him in this image. – Pietro Rojas \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Ocean Protector by\u00a0Ralph\u00a0Pace
Highly Commended, Wetlands: The Bigger Picture\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"OceanIn the shallows of Monterey Bay on the Pacific coast of the USA, Pace captured a glimpse of a sea hare gliding through an eelgrass meadow. – Ralph Pace \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Calm Amid the Storm by\u00a0Shane\u00a0Gross
Highly Commended, Oceans: The Bigger Picture\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"CalmA school of bigeye trevally swim at dawn as a storm approaches D’Arros Island in the Seychelles.\u00a0In order to achieve the split shot, Gross flipped the camera upside down to aid buoyancy distribution\u00a0and\u00a0adjusted his position, slowly approaching the curious school.\u00a0 – Shane Gross \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Urban Wanderer by Sora Miyazawa, Japan\u00a0
Highly Commended, 11-14 Years\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"UrbanMiyazawa chanced upon this Eastern Japanese toad in the middle of Tokyo. With a slow shutter speed, he composed the image before the toad hopped back into the bushes from where it had emerged. – Sora Miyazawa \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Lifted to the Surface by Vegard Byrkjeland\u00a0Aasen
Highly Commended, Behaviour: Mammals\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"LiftedAasen had just launched a drone to document sightings for the Norwegian Orca Survey when something caught his attention \u2013 an adult orca carrying a deceased calf, occasionally dropping it and then retrieving it as it sank. Cetacean mothers have been known to use their heads to lift calves to the surface so they can breathe, potentially suggesting that the mother could have been trying to revive its calf. – Vegard Byrkjeland Aasen \/ Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/p>\n

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A breathtaking scene of a polar bear peering into an ice hole is one of the shortlisted images…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611435,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-611434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611434"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611434\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}