{
  "id": 14742709,
  "title": "Winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/15/winners-of-the-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2026",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-15T16:35:01.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Atlantic",
    "slug": "the-atlantic",
    "url": "https://www.theatlantic.com/photography/2026/10/winners-wildlife-photographer-year-2026/689005/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 competition featured a diverse range of winning images capturing unique and captivating wildlife moments. James Lewin's \"The Meeting Place\" captured a young bull elephant spraying a group of zebras at a waterhole in Kenya's Chyulu Hills, achieved through infrared photography to soften the harsh light. Anton Sorokin's \"Protective Pose\" showcased a California newt laying eggs while clamping onto vegetation that another newt's eggs were already attached to. Alex Visbal's \"The Great Divide\" depicted how an engineered line in Utah's Great Salt Lake significantly altered the wetland ecosystem, particularly with the distinctive pink color caused by bright-pink microbes thriving in saline water. Loren Elliott's \"On the Outskirts\" won the Photojournalist Story Award for a photo of a coyote wandering through Bernal Heights Park in San Francisco, part of a resident pack that often hunts rodents in the popular park. Tony Wu's \"Making Morays\" offered a rare glimpse into the mating ritual of Abbott's moray eels, studying the male eel's behavior over several years using a customized fisheye camera lens. Kutub Uddin's \"Tiny Dancers\" revealed a magical world of slime molds, highlighting the capillitium threads that form on their round, yellow-green bodies and facilitate spore dispersal. Francisco Negroni's \"Warning Sign\" captured a dead puma displayed as a hunting trophy in Argentine Patagonia, highlighting the illegal persecution of pumas that continues despite legal protections. Aaron Sanders' \"A Watchful Eye\" won the Animal Portraits category for a photo of a common octopus peeking through kelp in the waters off southwest England. Oscar Whitfield's \"Labour of Love\" earned the 11-14 Years Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 title for a photograph of a dung beetle pushing its cargo, captured using a fast shutter speed and high light sensitivity to freeze the beetle at eye level against a backdrop of dry dust. Alex Lindbloom's \"Night-Time Catch\" won the Oceans: The Bigger Picture category for a photo of a whale shark investigating a fishing platform in Papua, illuminated by the bright lights of the \"bagan.\" Isak Pretorius' \"Scenes from the Swamp\" won the Behaviour: Birds category for a photo of two shoebill storks, possibly a breeding pair gathering nesting material, while Federico Veronesi's \"The Aftermath\" won both the Behaviour: Mammals and Overall Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 awards for a powerful image of an elephant carrying a dead calf, showcasing complex elephant behaviors upon encountering death.",
  "summary": "A collection of some of this year’s winning and honored images, selected from more than 65,000 submissions from 121 countries and territories",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}