Hyena shot that took decade to capture wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Exhibition of the images will be on display the Natural History Museum in London

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  EMBARGOED TO 2330 BST TUESDAY OCTOBER 14 PRINT USE ONLY. NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE, NO CROPPING. CAN ONLY BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM'S WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION 2025 MANDATORY CREDIT: Wim van den Heever/Wildlife Photographer of the Year Copyright in this image is retained by the photographer. THE FOLLOWING MUST APPEAR CLEARLY AND LEGIBLY IN EDITORIAL COPY: Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. USAGE RESTRICTIONS: Maximum number of images within a publication or website is up to 20 (twenty) images across multiple editions and pages unless otherwise agreed in writing between the publication and the Natural History Museum. All front cover requests must be approved by the Natural History Museum and the photographer. Undated handout photo issued by Natural History Museum of Ghost Town Visitor, a brown hyena among the skeletal remains of a long-abandoned diamond mining town taken in Kolmanskop, near Luderitz, Namibia, by Wim van den Heever, from South Africa, the winner of the Urban Wildlife category and the overall winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 competition. Issue date: Tuesday October 14, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Wim van den Heever/Wildlife Photographer of the Year/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.

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  'Synchronised Fishing', taken at Yundang Lake, Fujian Province, China, by Qingrong Yang

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  'Caught in the Headlights', taken in Ibbenburen, Germany by Simone Baumeister

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  'Like an Eel out of Water', taken in D'Arros Island, Amirante, Seychelles by Shane Gross of Canada

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  'Shadow Hunter', taken in Naturns, South Tyrol, Italy, by Philipp Egger of Italy

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  'Frolicking Frogs', taken in Kaw Mountain, French Guiana, by Quentin Martinez of France

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  'Cat Amongst the Flamingos', taken at Ndutu Lake, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania by Dennis Stogsdill of the US

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  'Sole Survivor', taken by Luca Lorenz of Germany

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  'Rattled', taken in Fort Davis, Texas by Javier Aznar Gonzalez de Rueda of Spain

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  'Eye of the Tundra', by Alexey Kharitonov of Israel and Russia

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  'Orphan of the Road', taken at a rehabilitation centre in Belo Horizonte, Brazil by Fernando Faciole

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  'How to Save a Species', taken in Ol Pejeta, Nanyuki, Kenya, by Jon A Juarez of Spain

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  'Vanishing Pond', taken in Platzertal, Tyrol, Austria by Sebastian Frolich of Germany

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  'Survival Purse', taken in Monterey Bay, California by Ralph Pace of the US

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  'Mad Hatterpillar', taken in Torndirrup National Park, Western Australia by Georgina Steytler

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  'Deadly Allure', taken in Kuching, Malaysia by Chien Lee

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  'The Feast', taken in northern Norway by Audun Rikardsen

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  'Alpine Dawn', taken in Col de la Colombiere, Haute-Savoie, France by Lubin Godin

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  EMBARGOED TO 2330 BST TUESDAY OCTOBER 14 PRINT USE ONLY. NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE, NO CROPPING. CAN ONLY BE USED IN CONNECTION WITH THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM'S WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR COMPETITION 2025 MANDATORY CREDIT: Andrea Dominizi/Wildlife Photographer of the Year Copyright in this image is retained by the photographer. THE FOLLOWING MUST APPEAR CLEARLY AND LEGIBLY IN EDITORIAL COPY: Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. USAGE RESRICTIONS: Maximum number of images within a publication or website is up to 20 (twenty) images across multiple editions and pages unless otherwise agreed in writing between the publication and the Natural History Museum. All front cover requests must be approved by the Natural History Museum and the photographer. Undated handout photo issued by Natural History Museum of After the Destruction, a longhorn beetle taken in Lepini Mountains, Lazio, Italy, by Andrea Dominizi, from Italy, the winner of the 15-17 Years category, and the overall title winner at the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Issue date: Tuesday October 14, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Andrea Dominizi/Wildlife Photographer of the Year/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.

A “haunting” image of a hyena in a mining ghost town that took a decade to capture has won this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest.

The shot was selected out of a record-breaking 60,636 images submitted to this year's competition. The image, taken by the South African wildlife photographer Wim van den Heever, shows a rarely seen brown hyena, the world’s rarest hyena species, next to a dilapidated building in the long-abandoned diamond mining town of Kolmanskop, Namibia.

Mr Van den Heever said it took him 10 years to capture the single image of a brown hyena in a perfect frame, and said he was “ecstatic” when he managed it. The image also won the Urban Wildlife Category of the contest.

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Kathy Moran, chairwoman of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year jury, said: “You get a prickly feeling just looking at this image and you know that you’re in this hyena’s realm. I also love the twist on this interpretation of ‘urban’ – it was once but is no longer a human-dominated environment.

“Abandoned by miners, wildlife has taken over. Repopulated, if you will. Is it still a town? It would seem that way to me, just no longer ours.”

'After the Destruction', by Andrea Dominizi. Andrea Dominizi / Wildlife Photographer of the Year / PA

The competition’s Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year prize was won by the Italian Andrea Dominizi, who secured the top award for his “harrowing” shot of habitat loss in the Lepini Mountains of central Italy.

His image “after the destruction” spotlights a longhorn beetle, a vital element of the ecosystem, framed by abandoned machinery in an area once logged for old beach trees.