10 Stunning Winners from Wildlife Photographer of the Year

By Dan Havlik  |  October 2024

“The jury was captivated by the mix of light, energy and connectivity between the environment and the tadpoles,” explained Kathy Moran, photo editor and chair of the jury for Wildlife Photographer of the Year. 

The tadpoles in the image are from the western toad, an amphibian native to western North America. Gross’ photo showing this otherworldly underwater scene was captured in a lake on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.

According to the contest’s website, Gross snorkeled in the lake for several hours to capture this image. Because any disturbed silt and algae on the lake would have reduced visibility, he followed the trails cleared by beavers through the dense array of lily pads on the surface.

“The photographer immerses us in an epic migration of tiny tadpoles, a scene that most of us would have never imagined existed,” photonaturalist and competition judge Tony Wu said of the photo. “By putting us in the midst of this movement of millions, they highlight the fact that beauty and magic exist everywhere, even in the most mundane of settings.”

In addition to the overall winner, we’ve included nine other winning images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest below. Now in its 60th year, the competition is sponsored by the Natural History Museum in London, where 100 awarded images are currently on display. You can also view them in the online winners’ gallery here.

This year’s contest saw a record-breaking 59,228 entries from 117 countries and territories. For more info visit the Wildlife Photographer of the Year’s website here. You can see our earlier story about the People’s Choice Award-winning image of a polar bear sleeping on an iceberg here.

Top photo © Shane Gross

Author Bio

Dan Havlik

Dan Havlik has been a writer and editor for photography magazines and websites for over two decades. Most recently he served as Editor in Chief of Outdoor Photographer and Shutterbug magazines.