Winners of the GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2026

A bullfrog leaps after a moth, missing it, and falling with its mouth open and tongue out.

Practice Makes Perfect. First Place, Other Animals. A young African bullfrog fails to catch its prey.

An elephant calf seeks shelter from the sun beneath its mother.

Shelter. Second Place, Mammals. An elephant calf seeks shelter from the blazing sun in the only available shade—the body of its mother. Photographed in Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

Six mosquitoes, seen in silhouette against a blurry sunlit backdrop

Mosquitoes on Fire. Second Place, Other Animals. I found these mosquitoes standing on a stone along a stream. The reflected sunlight in the background resembles a blazing fire.

Backlit moss and small plants along rock ledges

Green Lines. First Place, Plants & Fungi. Spring fever in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, where mosses, ferns, and wood sorrel bring the rock ledges of cool, dark gorges to life.

An Arctic wolf with a bloody muzzle stands near a herd of musk oxen on a snowy field.

Ancient Rivals. Second Place, Biodiversity—The Beauty and Significance of Natural Diversity. An Arctic wolf bearing traces of a recent hunt. A nearby herd of musk oxen stands alert in its iconic defensive formation.

Thin sheets of ice lie on a forest floor after a brief flood froze then receded.

Frozen Forest. First Place, Landscapes. This natural spectacle formed after a river flooded the forest, the water surface froze, the water underneath retreated, and the ice then broke up.

An aerial view of a lava flow, its outline roughly resembling a dragon.

Lava Dragon. Second Place, Nature’s Studio. An aerial view of an eruption on an active lava field, reminiscent of a dragon.

A small white hare sits in the entrance to a cave, surrounded by a snow-covered rocky mountainside.

Mountain Hare in the Alps. Overall Winner and First Place, Mammals. High above the tree line in the Alps, a mountain hare (bottom left) sat still for hours at the entrance to a small cave, only partially sheltered from the icy winds.

An abstract view of reeds and reflections on a still lake surface

Fragments of Light. First Place, Nature’s Studio. Reeds and dancing sun glitter reflect in the cool, blue waters of Lake Starnberg.

A gull, backlit, comes in for a landing in tall grass.

Black-Headed Gull. First Place, Birds. A black-headed gull in backlight during its landing approach in the Camargue.

A wading bird walks in shallow water, with tall cranes in a port seen in the far distance.

Eurasian Curlew in Front of JadeWeserPort. Second Place (tie), Birds. A Eurasian curlew in Jade Bight as the tide rises. The lights of the container cranes at JadeWeserPort glow in the background.

Looking upward in a misty forest, with one tree holding onto its autumn-colored leaves.

Feeling Small. Second Place, Landscapes. In this misty forest, one’s gaze is magically drawn upward to the branch of a beech tree still clad in autumn foliage.

A drone photograph of a hole in the ice at a gravel pit that has attracted a large number of waterbirds

Shelter at the Ice Hole. Prize of the Jury, and Eighth Place, Nature’s Studio. Drone photograph of a hole in the ice at a gravel pit that has attracted a large number of waterbirds.

A flock of cranes flies above a misty forest and wetland.

Rich in Structure. First Place, Biodiversity—The Beauty and Significance of Natural Diversity. Cranes depart from their roosting site in Lower Oder Valley National Park.

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Winners of the GDT Nature Photographer of the Year 2026

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