You never know what you'll find down the lens.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest released a preview of the images it has chosen for the 62nd edition of the competition put on by the Natural History Museum in London on Aug. 26.
In a news release for the preview, the contest said that it received more than 65,000 entries, which it described as "record-breaking." A jury narrowed the entries down to the 100 images that will be displayed in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London starting Oct. 16.
"Every year I think the entries to our competition can’t get any stronger… and every year I am proven wrong," Kathy Moran, the Chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Jury, said in a news release. "These images pave the way
for a deepened appreciation and commitment to our natural world."
The released images include a photo of a polar bear gazing down a seal’s breathing hole in the Arctic sea ice, by Audun Rikardsen; a shot of a rhino and an oxpecker, by Ernest Porter; and a moment of a young leopard chasing a squirrel up a tree in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, by Allegra Hutton.
Here is an early look at some of the images in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026.
See images from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026
When will the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 be announced?
Winners of in the competition will be announced Oct. 13 during an awards ceremony at the Natural History Museum in London. The ceremony will be livestreamed on the museum's YouTube channel.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Wildlife Photographer of the Year releases preview: See the images
