See 15 Captivating Images From the British Wildlife Photography Awards, From a Majestic Shark to Hungry Pigeons

The winning photographs highlight the diversity of animal and plant life in Britain as well as the often hidden behaviors of wild creatures

a male red deer with antlers raises its head on a grassland and bellows, looking fuzzy from falling rain
Appearing in a landscape that looks as though it were painted in watercolor, a male red deer roars in the rain. This photograph was the runner-up in the animal behavior category. © Paul Browning / British Wildlife Photography Awards

From a clever fox to a roaring deer, the images honored in this year’s British Wildlife Photography Awards contest capture the beauty in the natural world—even amid the hustle and bustle of city streets.

The competition offers a “crucial reminder of what value our woodlands, wetlands and other ecosystems still hold,” according to a statement about the 2025 winners, announced last week.

This year, the competition received more than 13,000 images, which were judged in ten categories in the adult contest and three age groups for youth photographers. Amateur and professional photographers alike vied for a £3,500 (about $4,500) prize.

“The British Wildlife Photography Awards continues to showcase the extraordinary beauty and diversity of Britain’s natural world,” says Will Nicholls, director of the contest. “We hope this collection inspires others to appreciate, respect and safeguard the wildlife that makes Britain so unique.”

All winners are published on the contest’s website and in a coffee table book. Here’s a selection of 15 stunning images commended by the judges.

Urban Explorer by Simon Withyman

a fox walks on a bridge, facing sideways but looking at the camera, with tall buildings in the background. It's framed by the railings on either side of the path and tree branches in the foreground
A female fox wanders through the urban landscape of Bristol, England. This image earned the grand prize and won the urban wildlife category. © Simon Withyman / British Wildlife Photography Awards

Photographer Simon Withyman tracked this female fox across Bristol, England, for more than three years, and over that time, he came to know her behavior. She was a successful mother, adept at snatching rodents and birds as well as scavenging leftovers in the city to feed her young. The vixen moved around a lot, which meant she could survive the urban hazards, including roads and the domains of other foxes.

Withyman lost track of her for about 18 months, he writes on Instagram, but relocated her far from her original territory. After capturing this picture in 2023, he stopped seeing this fox. “I hope she’s still out there somewhere, maybe raising another set of cubs,” he adds on Instagram.

The photograph earned him the contest’s grand prize and the title of British Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Bus Pass by Paul Goldstein

a swan sits on the side of the road, flanked by two silver poles and set against a backdrop of a blurred, passing red bus
A swan sitting in front of a passing bus in Mitcham, England, earned second place in the urban wildlife category. © Paul Goldstein / British Wildlife Photography Awards

Here, for a moment, a swan rests against a busy road, with a bus passing by. But this bird is a vigilant dad, keeping watch over his family in a nearby South London pond. Photographer Paul Goldstein had watched the mated pair for years as they raised baby cygnets each spring, and he knew this dad to be aggressive—driving away all other birds except for ducks as he looked out for his young.

To capture this photo, Goldstein got up early and waded into the thick mud of the pond, with the water up to his knees. Getting into position “was difficult enough,” he writes on Instagram, “but combining it with a London bus and employing a slow shutter speed made it even more tricky, but also strangely satisfying.”

Butterfly Face-off by John Waters

two butterflies—brown with white spots—face each other in mid-air against a blurred, green forest background
A pair of speckled wood butterflies spars for territory. This photograph won the animal behavior category. © John Waters / British Wildlife Photography Awards

Come springtime, male speckled wood butterflies will look for a patch of sunlight in their forest and defend it from any intruders. These face-offs usually result in a pair of males spiraling high into the treetops during their chase.

Wildlife photographer and videographer John Waters saw a pair of butterflies chasing each other just about five feet off the ground—close enough for him to get some tight action shots. In capturing this image, Waters got “extremely lucky,” he says in a statement—“it shows the instant one of the butterflies has spun around to face its pursuer.”

The Rain-Deer by Paul Browning

a male red deer with antlers raises its head on a grassland and bellows, looking fuzzy from falling rain
Appearing in a landscape that looks as though it were painted in watercolor, a male red deer roars in the rain. This photograph was the runner-up in the animal behavior category. © Paul Browning / British Wildlife Photography Awards

Rain could easily spoil a planned day of photography, but when the sky opened up on Paul Browning and his friends as they were deer-watching in a park in South England, he didn’t cover up his camera.

“Instead… I saw the perfect opportunity to capture the pouring rain using a slower shutter speed than usual, hoping one of the stags would put on a show with a roar,” he says in a statement. “And this was that moment.”

Browning had spent a lot of time with the red deer that fall, as it was the animals’ breeding season known as the “rut.” During this period, males compete for desirable territory, which will attract females. This often results in a showdown of bellowing and roaring.

Hare in Motion by David Tipling

a brown hare runs, its head, ears and shoulders in focus, with the rest of its body and the green background blurred out
Artfully blurred, this photograph of a running hare in Norfolk, England, won the animal portraits category. © David Tipling / British Wildlife Photography Awards

As it bounds across a field, a hare’s legs and body blur against the green backdrop, its head in crisp focus. Photographer David Tipling slowed down his camera’s shutter speed and panned along with the running hare to create this effect of movement.

His shot was inspired by a linocut print of a running hare by the late artist Robert Gillmor. “I thought it would be interesting to recreate this piece of art in a photograph,” he says in a statement. “It took many attempts, photographing hares as they moved up and down a field of winter wheat, but I finally achieved this image of a hare in motion.”

Red Grouse Coming in to Land by Ben Hall

a rotund bird, wings outstretched, flies in for a landing over a purple-red field of heather. Its head and torso are red, and its wings are white and black
A red grouse flies in for a landing at Yorkshire Dales National Park in England. This was the runner-up in the animal portraits category. © Ben Hall / British Wildlife Photography Awards

Ben Hall had focused his camera on a male red grouse feeding on heather in the uplands of Yorkshire, England. That moment was one among several that he had spent photographing these rotund, chicken-like creatures. But suddenly, movement caught his attention, and he noticed another bird flying in for a landing.

“With just enough time to reposition myself, I managed to capture the moment it landed on the heather with its wings outstretched,” says the photographer in a statement.

Streetlit Snowdrop by Jacob J. Watson-Howland

in the darkness, a single snowdrop flower appears orange, lit by a streetlight. The bloom droops downward like a hat
A single snowdrop flower is lit by a city streetlight in Canterbury, England. It took first place in the botanical Britain category. © Jacob J. Watson-Howland / British Wildlife Photography Awards

The snowdrop flower may look fragile, but it’s built to withstand the harsh temperatures of winter. These blossoms are among the first to appear, sometimes when snow still blankets the earth. Their leaves have tough, hard tips that can break through frozen ground, and their cells contain proteins that act as a natural antifreeze to weather the cold.

“This image, taken under a city streetlight with a slow shutter speed, highlights the snowdrop’s resilience and unique adaptations to Britain’s unpredictable and changing climate,” photographer Jacob J. Watson-Howland says in a statement.

Guillemot Kingdom by Mark Kirkland

black and white seabirds, one nearby and shown in detail, appear to fly through water above kelp-like plants. The whole image is in black and white
Sea birds called guillemots dive into the water off the coast of St. Abbs, Scotland. This shot won the black and white category. © Mark Kirkland / British Wildlife Photography Awards

In an Instagram post last year, photographer Mark Kirkland described the guillemot (also known as the common murre) as “an interesting wee bird that is quite happy to plunge into the depths to inspect divers.” For that reason, the species is a favorite among underwater photographers.

Kirkland traveled by boat to the cliffs of the Berwickshire coast in Scotland, where these roughly duck-sized birds gather seasonally. The guillemots are “often drawn to divers,” he says in a statement. “It is believed they mistake the rising bubbles for their primary food source—shoals of tiny sand eels,” which also glitter in the sun.

Blue Shark by Nicholas More

a shark swims just under the water's surface with a small fish beside its dorsal fin
This image of a blue shark took first place in the coast and marine category. © Nicholas More / British Wildlife Photography Awards

Some 10 to 15 miles off the coast of Penzance in southern England, Nicholas More came face-to-face with this blue shark, a summer visitor to the United Kingdom. Using a slow shutter speed, he captured the “bold and curious” species.

“As apex predators, [blue sharks] are highly vulnerable to long-line fishing and, with no catch limits or quotas, are overexploited for their finds in the production of shark fin soup,” More says in a statement. “These beautiful oceanic animals deserve our protection.”

Kingdom of the Hare by Drew Buckley

a wide view of a snowy, mountain landscape. In the foreground, a white hare's head sticks out from behind a pile of snow
In the highlands of Scotland, a mountain hare shelters from the wind. This image won the habitat category. © Drew Buckley / British Wildlife Photography Awards

A single mountain hare sits in a snowy landscape, hunkering down amid the cold wind. Photographer Drew Buckley hiked through deep snow in Scotland’s Monadhliath Mountains to reach this viewpoint.

Mountain hares don’t live in burrows, but they take shelter in depressions in the ground called forms. This one stayed still in its form, the photographer says in a statement, “perfectly adapted to its winter landscape.”

Roosting Dragons by Daniel Trim

six dragonflies clinging to the side of a reed-like plant appear blurred amid a fuzzy scene bathed in orange morning light
Dragonflies climb up a plant in preparation to be warmed by the first rays of morning sun. This photo won the hidden Britain category. © Daniel Trim / British Wildlife Photography Awards

When dragonflies gather in England’s Ham Wall Nature Reserve, the morning hours offer a unique glimpse into their behavior. “If you arrive early enough, you can witness them roosting in the reeds in impressive groups,” photographer Daniel Trim says in a statement. As the sun rises, they climb higher to be warmed by its rays, which bathe this scene in an orange glow.

To capture this image, Trim used an in-camera double exposure, with one frame focused sharply on the insects and another frame blurring the scene with a soft focus. He snagged this shot “during the panic of not knowing where to point my lens,” he writes on Instagram.

Storm Light Over the Caledonian Forest by James Roddie

a rainbow rises over tree-covered hills, with a small patch of four trees in the foreground lit up
The sun casts a natural spotlight on a small grove of trees amid the darkness of a storm in the Scottish highlands. This image won the wild woods category. © James Roddie / British Wildlife Photography Awards

James Roddie had never photographed at this site before, but he knew stormy weather often created gorgeous scenes in the Scottish highlands. Here, in Glen Strathfarrar, he felt drawn to the old Scots pine trees.

“Braving heavy rain, I waited patiently, hoping for the right moment. My patience was rewarded when a sudden burst of light illuminated the trees perfectly, with a rainbow forming behind them—a fleeting but magical scene,” Roddie says in a statement.

Curlew O’Clock! by Jamie Smart

a long-necked and long-billed brown bird stands amid a field of fluffy, seed-bearing dandelions in early morning light
A Eurasian curlew stands among dandelions in the morning light. This photograph won the Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year award and the category for photographers ages 11 and under. © Jamie Smart / British Wildlife Photography Awards

The Young British Wildlife Photographer of the Year is just 9 years old—Jamie Smart earned the title for her image of a Eurasian curlew among dandelions. She woke up at 1 a.m. and rode four hours to get to this site in Wiltshire, England, in the early morning. She was positioned with her camera out a car window when she heard the bird’s call.

“I scanned the area to try to find where they were and found this one wading through the dandelions just in front of me,” Smart says in a statement. It was just after sunrise, and the morning light “caught the dandelion clocks and lit them up like little fuzzy lamps everywhere.”

And Take Off—Gannets at Bass Rock by Kiran Simpson

a seabird with a white body, light yellow head and black wing tips flies at an angle against a rocky background
A northern gannet flies at Bass Rock, Scotland. The image won the category for 12- to 14-year-old photographers. © Kiran Simpson / British Wildlife Photography Awards

On his 13th birthday, Kiran Simpson traveled to Bass Rock, Scotland, where thousands of northern gannets had gathered.

“I was fortunate enough to capture a particularly special moment: A shard of light pierced through the cliffs just as a gannet was flying off to fish,” the young photographer says in a statement. It made for a “magical scene.”

Street Cleaners by Ben Lucas

five pigeons are seen through a paper bag on the ground on a city street, with french fries in the foreground
Opportunistic pigeons approach a bag of fries left on a street in Essex, England. This image won the category for 15- to 17-year-old photographers. © Ben Lucas / British Wildlife Photography Awards

Photographer Ben Lucas, 17 years old, noticed a bag of French fries abandoned on the street in his local shopping area. He knew it wouldn’t be long before some pigeons started poking around it for a snack. Grabbing the small GoPro he had on hand, Lucas situated the camera within the bag, then moved a short distance away, remaining close enough to be able to trigger the shutter with a voice command.

“I was sitting there with cold, greasy chip fingers behind a bench shouting at a camera inside a chip packet to take photos in the middle of the street,” the photographer wrote on Instagram last year. “Possibly the most embarrassing time of my life, but I think it was worth it.”

Carlyn Kranking is the assistant web editor for science and innovation.

Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Email Powered by Salesforce Marketing Cloud (Privacy Notice / Terms & Conditions)