Mournful elephant mom wins 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year | CBC News
An Italian photographer's "heartbreakingly poignant" photo of a mother elephant carrying her dead calf has won this year's top Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.
Kathy Moran, chair of the jury for the 2026 competition, described the photo as working on "so many levels."
In addition to winning the grand prize, the photo also won the Behaviour: Mammals category.
This year, the annual competition — the 62nd edition — attracted 65,403 entries from 121 countries and territories.
This year's Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year prize was won by Oscar Whitfield, a young British photographer who grew up in Zimbabwe and frequently returns there during school holidays.
Officially, there were no Canadian category winners this year. However, Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, who lives in Germany and won this year's Rising Star Award, is a Canadian citizen who has previously told CBC News his parents were both born in Canada, and he has relatives in Ottawa and Nova Scotia.
Canadians can see the 100-photo exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto from Nov 7, 2026, to Feb 28, 2027, or at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria from Feb. 12, 2027, until April 18, 2027.
A California newt lays eggs while clasping vegetation that already contains another newt's egg clutch in the winner of the Amphibians and Reptiles category, captured by U.S. photographer Anton Sorokin. The newt will stay like this until the egg mass swells to a size too large to be eaten by a predator.
Greek photographer Agorastos Papatsanis used UV light to make these fluorescent bonnet mushrooms glow brightly on a decaying log on the lower slopes of Greece's Mount Olympus. The image won the Plants and Fungi category.
A young bull elephant sprays water on a group of zebras at a waterhole in the Chyulu Hills of Kenya in this photo, the winner of the Animals in their Environment category, captured by James Lewin using a camera converted to infrared to soften harsh lighting.
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- An Italian photographer's "heartbreakingly poignant" photo of a mother elephant carrying her dead calf has won this year's top Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.
- Kathy Moran, chair of the jury for the 2026 competition, described the photo as working on "so many levels."
- In addition to winning the grand prize, the photo also won the Behaviour: Mammals category.
- This year, the annual competition — the 62nd edition — attracted 65,403 entries from 121 countries and territories.
- This year's Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year prize was won by Oscar Whitfield, a young British photographer who grew up in Zimbabwe and frequently returns there during school holidays.