Overview

• South African photographer Wim van den Heever won the top prize with a striped hyena framed in the sand-filled ruins of Kolmanskop, Namibia, a shot achieved through patient camera-trap work.
• The Natural History Museum reported a record 60,636 submissions from 113 countries for the 2025 competition.
• Photojournalist Jon A. Juárez documented the first successful rhino embryo transfer via IVF in a southern white rhino, which ended after an infection, as researchers prepare to attempt a northern white rhino embryo transfer using a southern surrogate.
• Category winners included Fernando Faciole for an image of an orphaned anteater rescued after a road fatality, Simone Baumeister for a kaleidoscopic spider picture created by reversing a lens element, and Jamie Smart taking the under-10 title with a morning-dew spider scene.
• The showcased techniques spanned UV illumination of a carnivorous pitcher plant by Chien Lee to remote triggering, analogue lens manipulation and other methods that reveal animal behavior and human–wildlife encounters.