Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026: elephant grief image wins top prize

The Natural History Museum in London announced the winners of the 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition on 13 October 2026. The overall adult prize went to Italian photographer Federico Veronesi for an image titled "The Aftermath," showing a female elephant carrying the body of a dead calf through Namibia's Huab River Valley.

How the winning photograph was taken

According to the museum's press release, Veronesi was tracking a group of elephants when he noticed unusual drag marks in a dry riverbed. Following the marks, he found a family group in which one female was carrying a dead calf, its leg wedged between her trunk and tusk. Veronesi initially assumed the female was the calf's mother, but researchers from a local elephant research project later told him the animal had lost her own calf years earlier and had previously been observed carrying dead calves belonging to other females in the herd.

Scientists cited in coverage of the image suggest such behaviour may reflect elephants processing death, though researchers are cautious about describing animal responses in strictly human emotional terms. Jury chair Kathy Moran said of the photograph: "This photograph works on so many levels. Emotionally it's a gut punch, heartbreakingly poignant. Intellectually it's proof that animals have cognition."

What science says about elephant responses to death

The behaviour Veronesi documented echoes findings from a separate scientific study published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa in March 2024. Researchers Parveen Kaswan and Akashdeep Roy documented five cases in which Asian elephant herds in northern Bengal, India, carried dead calves using their trunks and legs and buried them in irrigation canals with their legs facing upward. In one case, adult elephants produced loud roars and trumpet calls around the burial site before the herd left within 40 minutes and subsequently avoided the area on later migrations. The calves, aged three months to one year, had died of multiple organ failure with no evidence of human involvement, according to the study.

The researchers noted that only calves, not heavier adult elephants, were transported in this way, and that footprints from 15 to 20 elephants were found around each burial site. Such findings are part of a broader field of study, sometimes called elephant thanatology, examining consistent behavioural responses to death that researchers say go beyond simple curiosity or confusion.

A record year for entries

The 2026 competition received 65,403 entries from 121 countries and territories, a record for the contest, according to the Natural History Museum. Entries were selected anonymously by an international panel of judges, the museum said.

The young photographer category was won by Oscar Whitfield, from the UK and Zimbabwe, for an image titled "Labour of Love," depicting a dung beetle rolling a ball of dung.

The museum said this is the first time in the competition's history that both the adult and young overall winners were recognised for black-and-white photography.

Exhibition dates and conservation message

The full exhibition of winning images opens at the Natural History Museum in London on 16 October 2026 and runs until 11 July 2027. Museum director Dr Doug Gurr said the images capture intimate and revealing moments showing the role every species plays in the natural world, adding that understanding and protecting it has never been more important.

Other images in the selection include a polar bear photographed at a breathing hole in the ice by Audun Rikardsen of Norway, an African bullfrog lunging at a butterfly captured by Jens Cullmann of Germany, and an oxpecker cleaning a rhino's bill photographed by Ernest Porter of South Africa, according to a preview of the exhibition's winning images.