Pictured: Winning entries for Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026
Striking images including an urban coyote and an elephant carrying a dead calf are among this year's winners.
Key points
- Veronesi photographed a female elephant carrying a dead calf in Namibia's Huab River Valley.
- Researchers said the elephant had lost a calf years earlier and had picked up other females' dead calves.
- The exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum on Friday 16 October 2026.
A photograph of a female elephant carrying a dead calf in Namibia's Huab River Valley is among the winning entries in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 competition. Photographer Veronesi found the elephant while tracking elephants, after spotting drag marks across the sand of a dry riverbed.
The calf's leg was wedged between the elephant's tusk and trunk. Veronesi first believed the elephant was the calf's mother, but after sharing his photographs with an elephant research project in the area, he learned that was not certain.
What researchers found
Researchers identified the elephant as a female who had lost a calf several years earlier. They said she had previously picked up dead calves belonging to other females.
Veronesi called the encounter deeply significant, describing it as revealing of the depth and complexity of the animals' emotions. He said he hopes the image will encourage people to see animals as individuals with their own relationships, memories and emotions.
Of all the 20 years I've done photographing animals, this is the most heart-wrecking and fascinating and dramatic
— Veronesi
Other winning images
Other entries include Whitfield's photograph of a dung beetle pushing a ball of dung uphill in Zimbabwe, and Davis's shot of a bumblebee taken in a garden with her dad's smartphone. Lewin captured a young bull elephant spraying zebras at a waterhole using an infrared-converted camera.
Sanders photographed a common octopus in south-west England, where sightings have increased as warming spring sea temperatures push the species beyond the warmer Mediterranean. Pretorius photographed two shoebill storks, a species with fewer than 5,300 mature birds estimated to remain in the wild.
The competition's annual exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum on Friday 16 October 2026.
