The Wildlife Photographer of the Year had announced the winners of its prestigious awards in October 2025, but the results of the Nuveen People’s Choice Award were still in progress. After a series of intense voting sessions over a month, the viewers of the award have finally decided on an image. Here’s a look at who won and who was highly commended.
All images are courtesy of Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year and provided with permission.
The Nuveen People’s Choice Award received a whopping 85,917 votes and concluded that Austrian photographer Josef Stefan was the winner. The photograph showcases a playful lynx in Ciudad Real, Spain. According to the story, this lynx was throwing the rodent in the air, only to catch it again. The game of throw and catch lasted 20 minutes before the lynx got bored. It then took the rodent behind a bush and ate it.
Speaking about his stunning photograph, Stefan told Wildlife Photographer of the Year:
The journey to take this image was more than just another photographic adventure, it was the pursuit of a dream that had been with me for years: encountering the Iberian lynx, one of the rarest and most endangered wild cats in the world. In the early 2000s, this species was on the brink of extinction. Today, there are now over 2,000 thanks to consistent conservation efforts. The Iberian lynx is a living symbol of hope, showing what can happen when we take responsibility, act consciously and focus our attention where it’s most needed. Winning this award and being able to platform this message is the highlight of my 30 years as a nature photographer.
There have also been four more ‘highly commended’ that have impressed people. This set includes a photo of a serene scene of flamingos standing out against a stark industrial backdrop of power lines in Walvis Bay, Namibia, by Alexandre Brisson, and a quiet image of a mother polar bear and her cubs pausing on the Hudson Bay coast, Canada, by Christopher Paetkau.
The next image is of a pair of young bear cubs rearing up and play-fighting in the middle of a road in Jasper National Park, Canada, which was taken by Will Nicholls. And last but not least is Kohei Nagira’s image of a sika deer carrying the interlocked severed head of a rival male that had died after their battle.
Titled ‘Flying Rodent,’ the image by Stefan was at the top against the 23 photos. This selection was originally made from 60,636 entries from 113 countries and territories. The photos were chosen by an international judging panel of photography, wildlife, conservation, and science experts, as well as the Natural History Museum, London, which only proves how tough the contest was.
The winning and the runners-up images will be displayed at the Natural History Museum, London, until the exhibition closes on 12 July, 2026. For more information, visit Natural History Museum’s website.