Suppose one photo could make you love the world more than a thousand words might ever be able to. That’s what powers the 2025 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition, in which photos don’t only amaze but actuate. Entering its twelfth year, this competition, sponsored by the California Academy of Sciences, continues to astound nature lovers and conservationists just as much, garnering entries from almost 60 countries and highlighting the fragile loveliness of our world.
From death-defying wildlife spectacles to the secret survival of threatened ecosystems, the finalists and winners this year dish up more than a photographic feast they’re an open invitation to the delight and preservation of Earth’s wild treasures. Here are the most heart-pounding moments and behind-the-scenes tales that will leave you gasping and possibly a little hopeful about the future.
1. The Lemur’s Leap: Motherhood and Survival in Madagascar
The Grand Prize photo of the year is a doozy: a brown lemur, fresh from birth in arms, springing over a 100-foot crevasse in Madagascar’s Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. The photo, snapped by Donglin Zhou, is as much a work of timing as one of maternal bravery. During November’s dry season, when everything is relentless and rough, female lemurs with infants have to go further for water and nutrients and risk it all to defend their young. As Zhou’s camera froze, “this bold lemur skillfully led her troop through the cutting peaks and cracks of the rock forest” (Forbes). It’s one that makes us sit up and take notice: every survival bond is a bond to the future of a species.
2. Octopus Motherhood: A Sacrifice Beneath the Waves
Kat Zhou’s first-place winning entry in the Aquatic Life category is a tearjerker. A Caribbean reef octopus cares for her eggs in a sunken pipe, forgoing food and rest to protect her future young. When the eggs hatch, the mother’s mission is complete she expires, having given up her own life to provide for her offspring. Zhou went back four times to take photos of the mother’s unrelenting watch, in an attempt to win the hearts of sea creatures. As she describes it, her project is “an animal whose behaviors wildly diverge from our own but whose mothering instincts are completely familiar”. It’s a poignant reminder that the sea soap operas are every bit as emotional as any on land.
3. Arctic Wolves: Unleashing Curiosity on Ellesmere Island
Having an up-close encounter with wild wolves is a fantasy for most, but on Canada’s Ellesmere Island, photographer Amit Eshel experienced it. Following days of hunting and traveling, Eshel was surrounded by a pack of Arctic wolves dogs so unaccustomed to human beings that they padded forward inquisitively, rather than in fear. They have fewer than 200 such wolves on the island, which is the size of Great Britain. The photo of Eshel, snapped when the wolves edged close enough for him to be able to smell their breath, conveys their inquiring, playful disposition in a moment. “He believes that they were curious and did not see him as a food source”. In a world where so many predators are vilified, this encounter comes close to being magical.
4. Honduran White Bats: The Rainforest’s Golf-Ball-Size Tent-Making Architects
Forget whatever assumptions you might have about bats. Leafy tents constructed by the golf-ball-sized Honduran white bat among the rainforest canopy. Quadruplets through sextuplets work together, nipping and folding Heliconia leaves into inverted V-shaped huts. Not just for shelter these bats construct the forest, depositing seed-bearing droppings that grow new trees. One of the smallest fruit bats in the world, their cooperation and ecological influence are disproportionate (Forbes). Picture taken by photographer Dvir Barkay, a finalist in the Winged Life category, captures the elegance and creativity of these “mini tent makers” to perfection.
5. Vanishing Frosty Beauty of Rybnik
Marcin Giba’s aerial photograph of a broken, frosty lake in Rybnik, Poland, is eerily lovely and laced with an undercurrent of urgency. Previously known as the “smog capital of Poland” in light of widespread coal burning, Rybnik has been spectacularly redeveloped with the help of grassroots protests and government reforms. Still, as Giba states, “the kind of winter I remember from my childhood cold and white is becoming increasingly rare” (Forbes). Eleven winters of warmer winters translate to fewer times lakes are frozen over, so each frigid moment is precious. This photo isn’t photography it’s capturing climate change in action.
6. Rhino Rebound: Hope and Peril in Kenya
Ami Vitale’s winning Human/Nature photo captures a perilous endeavor: the transport of 21 black rhinos to new habitat in Kenya. These huge creatures, all but wiped out by poaching, are slowly recovering due to conservation. Relocation is not without risk, though one female did not make it after anesthesia and was resuscitated by emergency care. As Vitale’s photo illustrates, “people are willing to risk danger to bring back an endangered species” (Forbes). Kenya has reached the half-way point to its target of 2,000 wild rhinos, evidence that co-operative effort can pay dividends.
7. Waves: Nature’s Indomitable Carvers
Sandra Bartocha’s sunrise long-exposure wave is not only stunning it’s a masterclass on nature’s tenacity. Waves, some travelling thousands of miles, sculpt coastlines, carry nutrients, and even lead baby sea turtles out to sea. Waves in Germany drop as much as 13 feet of sand each year or wipe out eight feet. This photo, winner of the Art of Nature category, is a reminder that even forces most predictable are shifting with our climate.
8. The Surprising Drama of Insects
Takuya Ishiguro’s “World of Familiar Insects” photo essay is a new perspective on the small, fly-under-the-radar creatures we tend to overlook. With a carefully designed lens, Ishiguro captures the gemlike beauty of a dew-covered housefly and the hidden lives of insects in his backyard in Tokyo. These photographs challenge our assumptions, reminding us that even the tiniest of creatures can be nature’s stars and essential to its equilibrium.
9. Women Trailblazers in Wildlife Photography
Behind much of the iconic imagery stand women who are shattering glass ceilings in a profession once thought to be the preserve of men. The BigPicture jury is deliberately balanced, and six women have won the Grand Prize in twelve years. Their vision and persistence are transforming conservation storytelling, and the next generation of photographers is represented in the world that they image.
From outright animal rescues to the discreet loveliness of a bat’s foliage hideaway, the 2025 BigPicture winners demonstrate that nature photography is not just an eye feast it’s a call to conserve. These photographs don’t just record the world we inhabit; they compel us to imagine what the world could be like if we opt to leave it as is. For everyone who adores wilderness scenery and what they whisper, the anthology of this year serves as a reminder: sometimes the greatest transformation begins with one solitary, irreproducible image.
