A brown hyena in an abandoned mining town and a longhorn beetle in a forest are the top winners of this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The Natural History Museum in London announced the two grand prize winners and 19 category winners. South African photographer Wim van den Heever won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year title with his photo “Ghost Town Visitor,” capturing a brown hyena in Namibia. The hyena is rare and passes through the town on its way to hunt seal pups.
Italian photographer Andrea Dominizi won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title with his image “After the Destruction,” showing a beetle on a mossy log in Italy. Shane Gross, a photographer from Nanaimo, B.C., was the sole Canadian category winner, capturing “Animals in their Environment” with his photo “Like an Eel out of Water.”
Gross’s winning photo was taken at D’Arros Island in Africa, a newly established marine protected area. He documented the unique eels hunting on the shore, showcasing their behavior and interaction with the environment. Gross highlighted the importance of protecting entire ecosystems rather than focusing on individual species.
The winning images, selected from over 60,000 entries, will be displayed at the Natural History Museum in London and the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The exhibition will feature diverse wildlife and habitats captured by talented photographers from around the world.
