A brown hyena with stripes on its legs stands at the bottom right corner of the picture, as an abandoned house towers in the background during the night. — Ghost Town Visitor ©Wim van den Heever, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 winning images

By Sara Echeverry

First published 14 October 2025

The Grand Title Award went to Wim van den Heever for his picture of a brown hyena in the abandoned town of Kolmanskop, Namibia.

Book your tickets for our Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition, which opens Friday 17 October 2025.

Adult Grand Title Winner 2025

In the image Ghost Town Visitor, a hyena stands looking near the direction of the camera as an imposing half-destroyed house towers in the background. Taken at night, with mist setting in, the picture has a haunting quality.

As well as being the overall winner, Wim’s photograph also won the Urban Wildlife Category, with the judges admiring how it gives an original twist to the interpretation of urban.

“It once was but is no longer a human-dominated environment,” explains Kathy Moran, Photo Editor and Chair of the Jury for Wildlife Photographer of the Year. “Abandoned by miners, wildlife has taken over. Repopulated, if you will. Is it still a town? It would seem that way to me – just no longer ours.”

The judges also consider the image to be a prime demonstration of the qualities needed to be a successful wildlife photographer – curiosity, patience and talent. But above all persistence – with Wim dedicating 10 years to getting this extraordinary photograph.

Brown hyenas in ghost towns

Brown hyenas aren’t nearly as famous as their cousins the spotted hyena and the striped hyena. They’re quite rare, with the population estimated to be between 4,000 and 10,000 in the wild. This means they’re classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Near Threatened on their Red List. They live in very dry environments where food is scarce, so they tend to stay in small groups of up to six.

Our zoologist Dr Natalie Cooper explains that it’s rare to find brown hyenas close to human dwellings. However, the hyenas “feel quite safe” here, as the Kolmanskop area was abandoned 70 years ago after the diamonds being mined ran out. Natalie says the solitude of the place combined with human-made constructions that shelter hyenas from the wind, make it an ideal location for denning.

Towns like this, in the middle of the desert, are resource-limited environments that depend on the hyenas almost as much as the hyenas depend on them. As scavengers, they not only clean up by feeding on dead animals but also redistribute nutrients. “They’ll often travel really big distances,” Natalie explains. “Sometimes they’ll go up to 50 kilometres to find food and bring that food back to the den, so they’re moving those nutrients around.”

This recycling role makes hyenas crucial in tough environments. Without scavengers, carcasses would pile up and nutrients would remain in one place. As a result, other parts of the ecosystem wouldn’t benefit from them.

Wim’s image reminds us all that even animals people might overlook or think negatively of play vital roles in keeping ecosystems alive.

Young Grand Title Winner 2025

A longhorn beetle stands on a log in focus at the bottom left corner of the frame, as a logging machinery is pictured blurred in the background. — After the Destruction ©Andrea Dominizi, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A longhorn beetle of the species Morimus asper takes the spotlight in the beautiful image After the Destruction by Andrea Dominizi, the winner of this year’s Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award.

In a frame diagonally split in half, the beetle stands fully focused in the bottom left corner while logging machinery looms in the top right.

The picture tells two stories. One is of impending natural destruction caused by human intervention, against which the smallest creatures stand no chance. The other is of hope and resilience, the composition cleverly making the insect appear as big as the machinery.

“The photographer has given M. asper authority in this image,” says Marine Biologist and Underwater Photographer Jennifer Hayes, one of the judges of this year’s competition. “It does exactly what a strong photograph should do – it increases our understanding.”

Beetles as recyclers

Our beetle expert Max Barclay explains that this is one of 30,000 species of longhorn beetle that exist around the world. In a poetic twist, its genus name Morimus actually comes from the Greek word meaning “destined to die”, which this image so perfectly encapsulates.

It likely got given this name due to its black colour, its association with decaying wood and the fact it can’t fly.

Andrea took After the Destruction in the Lepini Mountains of central Italy, in an area once logged for old beech trees. The contribution of beetles to the ecosystems of the area is so much greater than their size.

Much like hyenas, beetles are recyclers, only instead of recycling dead animals, they recycle dead wood. “Not many things can eat dead wood,” says Max, but beetles eat it and turn it into droppings that contain nutrients that are then used by plants. “That’s important,” he continues, “because otherwise you just have dead wood all over the place and all the nutrients would be locked up, not being used”.

Beetles provide nutrients not only to plants but also to animals such as birds, which feed on insects. If beetles were to disappear, Max says, “you’re not only going to have an interruption of the ecosystem services but you’re also going to have a loss of a food source for other organisms”.

This is why Andrea’s winning image has resonance beyond its beauty. Beetles may be overlooked in conservation campaigns, but they underpin life as we know it. Without them, forests wouldn’t be able to regenerate and food chains could collapse.

“I’m so pleased to see this picture winning an award as prestigious as the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year,” says Max. “It really helps to raise the profile of insects, and it helps people see these amazing creatures that, in some ways, are just as interesting and just as fascinating as the bigger animals.”

“I think insect conservation is going to become more important as time passes,” he concludes. “If you’re a young person and interested in insect conservation, you can just go out to your local patch and find something interesting.”

See the winning images

These winning photographs were chosen from a record-breaking 60,636 entries from 113 countries and territories.

The exhibition featuring the 100 awarded images is open at the Natural History Museum, London until 12 July 2026. Book your tickets now.

You can also explore this year’s images, alongside our archive of images from past competitions, in our online gallery.

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