The prestigious Nature inFocus photography competition for 2025 has revealed its extraordinary winners, celebrating the finest in global wildlife and conservation imagery.
A Global Showcase of Talent
The awards were announced during the Nature inFocus festival, hosted at the historic Jayamahal Palace in Bengaluru, India. The competition attracted an impressive 16,000 image submissions from more than 1,250 photographers representing over 38 countries worldwide, making it one of the most diverse and competitive wildlife photography events of the year.
Celebrating Category Winners
Among the standout winners was Sarthak Agrawal's Urban Oasis, which captured flamingos feeding peacefully against Dubai's dramatic skyline at Ras Al Khor wildlife sanctuary. This urban wetland hosts over 25,000 migratory birds each winter, demonstrating how nature persists amid rapid urban development.
The Young Photographer category was won by Tinnapat Netcharussaeng for Nautilus on the move, featuring a female Paper Nautilus using a drifting leaf as temporary refuge during a nighttime blackwater dive in Anilao, Philippines.
Sergey Bystritsky claimed the Wildscape & animals in their habitat prize with Thief in the spotlight, using carefully positioned soft lights to guide a fox into view among unusually shaped trees in Georgia's Vashlovani national park.
In the Conservation category, Rajat Chordia and Vidhan Dwivedi's powerful image Edge of two worlds showed a young leopard feeding beside rubbish and fast-moving traffic in Udaipur, India, highlighting the challenges of human-wildlife coexistence.
The Animal Behaviour category was won by Amit Eshel for Ancient rivals, capturing an Arctic wolf showing signs of a recent hunt as a muskox herd forms a defensive circle to protect their calves on Ellesmere Island, Canada.
Bidyut Kalita's Blue Aura triumphed in the Creative Nature category, using innovative lighting techniques to capture a cranefly with its delicate legs glowing in a soft blue aura in Goalpara, India.
Federica Cordero won the Animal Portraits category with The canopy watcher, featuring a young male chimpanzee lounging effortlessly on a twisted vine in Uganda's forests.
Special Mentions and Runners-Up
The competition also recognised several special mentions and runners-up, including Suliman Alatiqi's Cooling on the Coast showing a Komodo dragon resting in shallow water in Indonesia, and Raghuvamsh Chavali's Patterns in the Sky capturing birds forming synchronised patterns beside a city building in Canada.
Tinnapat Netcharussaeng received another special mention for Crevice Companions, depicting Caribbean spiny lobsters and whitetip reef sharks sharing shelter in Mexico's Socorro Island waters.
The competition continues to highlight both the breathtaking beauty of the natural world and the urgent conservation challenges facing wildlife across the globe.
