Italian photographer Federico Veronesi has won Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 for an emotional image of a female elephant carrying a dead calf in Namibia, beating out more than 65,000 entries.
Experts familiar with the local elephant research project noted that the animal had lost her own calf several years earlier and had previously picked up dead calves belonging to other females in the region, though Veronesi initially assumed she was the mother.
“Of all the 20 years I’ve done photographing animals, this is the most heart-wrecking and fascinating and dramatic.”
Federico Veronesi, Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 winner
Veronesi hopes the photograph will push viewers to look past physical appearances and recognize animals as individuals with their own memories, relationships, and emotional depth as detailed in competition coverage.
“It’s a small window that opens just a crack into the complexity of their world.”
Federico Veronesi, Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 winner
Global Entries Win Category Honors
The Natural History Museum in London organized the competition, which has run for 62 years and garnered 65,000 submissions across 19 categories.
Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin presented the winning photographs at an awards ceremony at London’s Natural History Museum.
- Invertebrates: Sitaram Raul photographed a scorpion burrowing into a sand dune in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, India, using stiff, elongated bristles or sand combs like snowshoes.
- Oceans: The Bigger Picture: Alex Lindbloom from the USA found a whale shark investigating the catch of a mobile net-fishing platform known as a bagan.
- Under Water: Tony Wu from the USA and Japan documented Abbott’s moray eels engaged in their mating ritual in Kagoshima Prefecture, Kyūshū, Japan; working with biologists using dim red light and a customised setup, he captured what is likely the first time the courtship has been photographed.
- Photojournalism: Francisco Negroni won for a photo of a dead puma on a fence in Patagonia, Argentina.
- Portfolio Award: Kutub Uddin from Bangladesh and the UK documented slime moulds in West Sussex, England, noting that their fruiting structures are just one to two millimetres high.
- 10 Years and Under: Amelie Davis won with
Flight of the Bumblebee
after recording the delicate detail of a single wingbeat on a garden afternoon teeming with bees.
Natural History Museum Hosts Exhibition
Museum director Doug Gurr noted in a statement that the winning photographs demonstrate the extraordinary power of wildlife photography to help us see nature differently and remind us that every species plays a role in the complex web of life.
The contest has now operated for 62 years.
More on Federico Veronesi
An emotional scene of an elephant carrying a deceased calf has earned Italian photographer Federico Veronesi the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026.Kathy Moran, who chaired the judging panel, spoke to #BBCBreakfast about the black and white image which was taken in… pic.twitter.com/QEJ68vWa07