A nosy polar bear and a lucky squirrel: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 shortlist

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 Shortlist Reveals Stunning Encounters Across the Globe

Constantvpn.com – The annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition has unveiled its shortlist of highly commended entries, offering a window into some of the most extraordinary moments captured by photographers working across every continent. From the frozen waters of the Norwegian Arctic to the humid lowlands of Brazil’s Pantanal, the selected images span a remarkable range of species, habitats, and technical challenges. The overall winners will be named on Tuesday 13 October 2026, after which the winning and shortlisted work will go on display at London’s Natural History Museum beginning Friday 16 October 2026.

A Polar Bear’s Uninvited Visit

Among the most arresting entries this year is an image titled “Icy Window,” which earned a Highly Commended placement in the Animal Portraits category. The photograph places the viewer directly in the position of a seal, looking upward through a narrow hole in the ice as a female polar bear peers down into the water. The shot was taken by Norwegian photographer Audun Rikardsen, who was guiding a group through Arctic Wildlife Tours when he devised the setup.

Rikardsen positioned an underwater camera fitted with a motion sensor just below the breathing hole of a seal and then waited in the dark. At approximately 4 a.m., a female polar bear drifted close to the ice and lowered her head to investigate the disturbance. Rather than retrieving the equipment immediately, Rikardsen held his position for a further eight hours until the bear finally departed. Only then did he recover the camera and examine the frames.

“I was so extremely happy. I was screaming, so I probably woke up all the polar bears for miles.”

The reaction is understandable given the rarity of such a close, face-to-face encounter with one of the Arctic’s apex predators. Rikardsen is no stranger to the competition’s highest honours: he took the Birds category in 2019 and the Oceans: The Bigger Picture category in 2025. This year’s shortlisting marks yet another chapter in a career defined by patience and proximity to dangerous wildlife.

Swifts Over London

In a very different setting, British teenager Jack Crockford (aged 15–17) earned a Highly Commended spot with his image “The Art of Flying,” shot at Bushy Park in London. Crockford had been tracking the seasonal return of swifts from their African wintering grounds. Most of the birds flew at altitudes beyond practical photographic reach, but a handful that dipped lower gave him the brief window needed to frame the shot. Swifts are among the most aerial of all birds, spending virtually their entire adult lives in flight and touching down only to breed.

A Toad on a Tokyo Street

Sora Miyazawa, a Japanese photographer in the 11–14 age bracket, captured an Eastern Japanese toad navigating a rain-slicked urban road in Tokyo. Working quickly with a slow shutter speed, Miyazawa managed to record the amphibian before it hopped back into surrounding shrubbery. Although the species is native to forests and grasslands across eastern Japan, individuals have shown a notable capacity to adapt to city environments, making sightings on paved surfaces increasingly common after heavy rain.

An Orca’s Grief in a Norwegian Fjord

Perhaps the most emotionally charged entry on the shortlist is “Lifted to the Surface” by Vegard Byrkjeland Aasen of Norway, placed in the Behaviour: Mammals category. While piloting a drone for the Norwegian Orca Survey over Kvænangen in Troms County, Aasen spotted an adult killer whale hauling the body of a dead calf through a fjord. The mother repeatedly permitted the calf to sink below the surface before hauling it back up again — a behaviour Aasen judged worth recording despite its painful nature. The act may represent an attempt to revive or protect the young animal. Killer whales have been documented carrying deceased calves on other occasions, including a well-known case in which a female Southern Resident orca kept her dead calf aloft for at least 17 days. A 2026 study suggests this kind of post-mortem carrying may be far more widespread across the species than earlier estimates indicated.

A Mosquito on a Fer-de-Lance

The Grammatico twins, Andrea and Maceo, based in France, received a Highly Commended placement in Animal Portraits for “Biting Back,” photographed at Sierpe in South Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Only after reviewing their images did the pair realise they had recorded a mosquito perched atop the head of a fer-de-lance viper. The twins described the resulting composite as “one of the most demanding focus stacks we’ve ever created.” The fer-de-lance is one of Central America’s most dangerous snakes, responsible for more fatal bites in the region than any other species. Its cryptic colouration allows it to vanish into plantation undergrowth, sometimes going unnoticed by the very workers who tend the crops around it.

Vultures, Jaguars, and a Mysterious Wound

Andy Parkinson (UK) earned a Highly Commended slot in Animal Portraits with “Wings of Darkness,” taken at Meeting of the Waters State Park in the northern Pantanal, Brazil. Parkinson kept his boat at a respectful distance and used a long telephoto lens to frame a black vulture perched over the carcass of a yacaré caiman. After the vulture eventually flew off, a jaguar that had been waiting out of frame moved in to claim the remains. It was only at that point that Parkinson noticed a suspiciously clean, straight wound along the top of the caiman’s skull — a mark he suspects was inflicted by a speeding boat striking the animal.

Eye of the Storm

South African photographer Dewald Tromp’s image “Eye of the Storm,” shot in Namibia, was also Highly Commended in the Animals in their Environment category, adding a desert-ecosystem perspective to a shortlist otherwise dominated by aquatic and tropical subjects.

What Comes Next

The shortlist underscores the breadth of subjects and techniques now represented in the competition, from drone-assisted marine observation to multi-frame focus stacking of minute insects. For viewers who wish to see the full range of shortlisted work in person, the Natural History Museum exhibition in London opens on 16 October 2026, giving the public a rare opportunity to stand before prints of images that required days of waiting, specialised equipment, and a degree of luck to capture.