Three panels: left, two young gorillas touch hands in a green forest; center, two emperor penguins face each other with a chick between them; right, a humpback whale swims underwater in blue ocean.

Nature’s Best Photography has unveiled their winning photos for the Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 competition. This year marks the contest’s 30th anniversary. The grand-prize-winning photo shows a pair of Emperor penguins looking down at their fluffy chick amid a snowstorm.

The grand-prize-winning photo, Emperor Penguins, by Canadian photographer Thomas Vijayan, is an excellent showcase of how devoted parents in the animal kingdom protect and raise their young, even in the world’s harshest environments, the photographer explains.

Two adult emperor penguins face each other with their heads close, forming a heart shape, while a fluffy chick stands between them on a snowy white background.Emperor Penguins by © Thomas Vijayan | Grand Prize Winner, Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025

Vijayan’s grand-prize-winning photo bested more than 20,000 other incredible submissions by nature and wildlife photographers from 62 countries. Of these, nearly 500 were shortlisted. After a very challenging judging process, the panel selected 11 category winners and the Top 100 Highly Honored finalists.

All 11 category winners, plus the Youth Photographer of the Year winner, Lisiqi Ye, are featured below.

Youth Photographer of the Year — Lisiqi Ye

17-year-old Chinese photographer Lisiqi Ye captured this incredible photo of a great hornbill in flight in Yingjiang, Yunnan, China, earning Ye the highly coveted title of “Youth Photographer of the Year.”

A great hornbill with a large yellow and black casque on its beak is flying with wings spread wide, showing striking black, white, and yellow feathers against a blurred blue-gray background.Great Hornbill in Flight by © Lisiqi Ye | Youth Photographer of the Year, Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025

“I spent days in a hide watching a tree cavity claimed by a pair of great hornbills,” the young photographer says. “Here, the red-eyed male was coming home facing the wind.”

Category Winners Animal Antics Two young gorillas sit on tree branches in a lush green forest, facing each other closely. One gorilla gently touches the other’s face, creating an intimate and playful moment.Mountain Gorillas by © David Swindler, Winner — Animal Antics | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Art in Nature Bear paw prints scattered across cracked, dry mud, with a few small tufts of grass visible.Grizzly Bear Crossing by © Henry H. Holdsworth, Winner — Art in Nature | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Birds Two grey crowned cranes stand facing each other in tall grass with wings spread wide, displaying their striking plumage and golden feather crowns against a soft, light background.Grey Crowned Cranes by © Steve Mattheis, Winner — Birds | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Wildlife Two jaguars partially hidden among dense green foliage, with one jaguar looking directly at the camera while the other peers out from behind the leaves in a lush, natural environment.Male Jaguars by © Hira Punjabi, Winner — Wildlife | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Landscapes A vibrant sunrise casts warm light on rugged mountains and a lake surrounded by pine trees, with a sky filled with scattered, colorful clouds. The scene is lush and tranquil, showcasing natural beauty and vivid colors.Sunrise at St. Mary Lake by © Dr. Elliot McGucken, Winner — Landscapes | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025
Outdoor Adventure A lone skier stands atop a snowy ridge, overlooking mist-filled valleys and jagged, snow-covered mountain peaks under a clear blue sky.Skiing the North by © David Swindler, Winner — Outdoor Adventure | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Ocean Views A group of large sharks swims together underwater, surrounded by a school of small fish, with light filtering through the blue-green water above.Sand Tiger Sharks by © Nicolas Remy, Winner — Ocean Views | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Polar Passion A polar bear sits on a snowy, rocky surface while strong winds whip snow around it, creating a dramatic, misty effect in the cold, Arctic environment.Polar Bear in Snowstorm by © Daniel Valverde Fernández — Winner, Polar Passion | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Conservation Story A man in winter clothing holds a sea turtle beside the ocean as several hands reach out to touch it. Surrounding images show people rescuing turtles, turtles in bins indoors, and a person returning a turtle to the sea.The Great Turtle Rescue by © Sandesh Kadur — Winner, Conservation Story | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Conservation Single Image A dog lies curled up in the middle of a large expanse of colorful plastic trash and debris, highlighting environmental pollution and animal vulnerability.Sri Lankan Elephant in Waste Pile by © Lakshitha Karunarathna — Winner, Conservation Single Image | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Nature in Motion

Polar Bear Swimming and Playing by © Florian Ledoux, Winner — Nature in Motion | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025
Selected Highly Honored Photos A moose with branches on its antlers stands in a snowy field next to a large camera with a telephoto lens mounted on a tripod, with snow-covered hills in the background.© Deena R. Sveinsson, Highly Honored — Animal Antics | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 A field of tall grasses with clusters of blue wildflowers and several butterflies perched on them, set against a blurred background of hills and greenery.
© Haying Cai, Highly Honored — Art in Nature | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Two herons with outstretched wings face each other mid-air above a pond with yellow flowers, appearing to interact or fight, set against a blurred, dark natural background.© Antonio Aguti, Highly Honored — Birds | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 Bats flying in a white sky, viewed from below through tall, green grass blades curving inward from the edges of the image.© Baiju Patil, Highly Honored — Wildlife | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 A frozen landscape features icy ground with curved lines, rocky terrain, a glacier, and a distant mountain bathed in sunlight under a cloudy sky with a faint rainbow-like arc.
© Luis Vilariño, Highly Honored — Landscapes | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 A group of people on a boat excitedly watch and photograph a large humpback whale breaching near the water’s surface, close to their vessel on a cloudy day.© Torie Hilley, Highly Honored — Outdoor Adventure | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 A humpback whale swims upright near the ocean surface, its head and flippers visible in the clear blue water, sunlight highlighting the grooves on its underside.© Charlie Wemyss-Dunn, Highly Honored — Ocean Views | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025
Three white Arctic wolves stand and walk on snow, blending into the snowy landscape. Two wolves are facing forward, while one walks to the left. A few more wolves are faintly visible in the distance.© Amit Eshel, Highly Honored — Polar Passion | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 A green frog leaps over the open jaws of a crocodile, narrowly avoiding the crocodile's sharp teeth above the water in a natural setting.© Genia Ikhfa Anindita (13 years old), Highly Honored — Youth | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025 A lynx stands in a snowy landscape behind a barbed wire fence. The scene is mostly white, with the lynx and fence providing dark contrast against the snow.© Xingchao Zhu, Highly Honored — Conservation Single Image | Nature’s Best Photography Awards 2025

The complete gallery of all the Nature’s Best International Awards 2025 winners, including the video winners, is available on a dedicated website. The winners will also be showcased in the 2025 Winter Special 30th Anniversary Edition of Nature’s Best Photography magazine, which will be available soon.


Image credits: Photos provided courtesy of Nature’s Best Photography. All individual photographers are credited in the captions.