{"id":629849,"date":"2026-10-14T00:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T00:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/629849\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T00:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T00:52:10","slug":"wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2026-winning-images-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/629849\/","title":{"rendered":"Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 winning images revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A heartbreaking image of an elephant carrying a dead calf has been named the overall winner of the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/a> competition.\n <\/p>\n

\n The image, named \u201cThe Aftermath,\u201d was taken by Italian photographer Federico Veronesi. It shows a female elephant carrying the calf in Namibia, according to a statement from the Natural History Museum, which organizes the competition, on Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis photograph works on so many levels. Emotionally it\u2019s a gut punch, heartbreakingly poignant. Intellectually it\u2019s proof that animals have cognition,\u201d said Kathy Moran, chair of the competition\u2019s jury, in the statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, Oscar Whitfield won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for his photo of a dung beetle pushing its prize.\n <\/p>\n

\n Named \u201cLabour of Love,\u201d Whitfield captured the image by lying flat on the ground as the beetle moved past his lens.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is exceptionally well done. Photographing such a small, constantly moving subject is challenging, yet the image feels so intentional,\u201d said jury member Jasper Doest in the statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe composition reveals an entire story and by doing so the photograph quietly reveals how life cycles depend on what we often overlook or dismiss,\u201d Doest added.\n <\/p>\n

\n The jury also selected winners in more than a dozen other categories, all of which will form part of an exhibition that opens on October 16 at the Natural History Museum in London, England.\n <\/p>\n

\n The competition received a record-breaking 65,403 entries from 121 countries and territories around the world, organizers said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis year\u2019s winning photographs demonstrate the extraordinary power of wildlife photography to help us see nature differently,\u201d said Doug Gurr, director of the museum, in the statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTogether they remind us that every species plays a role in the complex web of life, and why understanding and protecting the natural world has never been more important.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A heartbreaking image of an elephant carrying a dead calf has been named the overall winner of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629850,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-629849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}