An Italian photographer has won this year’s top Wildlife Photographer of the Year award with a moving image of a mother elephant carrying her deceased calf. Federico Veronesi’s photo, titled “The Aftermath,” was taken in Namibia’s Huab River Valley while he was tracking elephants. The image shows an adult female elephant with the calf’s leg caught between her tusk and trunk, leaving a trail of drag marks in the sand.
Kathy Moran, the chair of the 2026 competition jury, praised the photo for its emotional impact and intellectual depth, highlighting the animals’ cognition. Apart from winning the grand prize, the photograph also clinched the Behaviour: Mammals category.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, organized by the Natural History Museum in London, aims to showcase nature’s stories and raise awareness about environmental issues. This year’s edition received over 65,000 entries from 121 countries. The competition recognizes top photographers in both adult and young categories.
Oscar Whitfield, a young British photographer, won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for his close-up shot of a dung beetle rolling dung. Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, a Canadian citizen who won the Rising Star Award, presented a photo capturing a robber fly preying on a flesh fly.
The exhibition of the top 100 photos includes notable Canadian photographers, such as Shane Gross, with several highly commended entries. The display will be showcased at various museums, including the Royal Ontario Museum and the Royal B.C. Museum in Canada, as well as the Natural History Museum in London.
Additionally, winners in other categories include Amelie Davis from the U.K. for the 10 years and under bracket, U.S. photographer Anton Sorokin for Amphibians and Reptiles, Greek photographer Agorastos Papatsanis for Plants and Fungi, and James Lewin for Animals in their Environment capturing a scene of a young bull elephant spraying water on zebras in Kenya’s Chyulu Hills.