Annually, London's National History Museum declares the most impactful, striking wildlife images taken by photographers around the world. Each year, the results are wide-varying and significant, capturing the consequences of climate change, the beauty in the unknown, and the diversity of landscapes everywhere.
This year is no different. The 2023 winners turned their lenses to the swampy forests of Brazil, the birds within rainforests in French Guiana, the tiger reserves of Tamil Nadu, and the magic fungi in Mount Olympus, Greece. The photographs range from harrowing to simply beautiful, with winners declared in categories ranging from "Plants and Fungi" to "Urban Wildlife".
No matter what the subject, each is a feast for the eyes. Here are the winners.
Lowland tapirs in Tapiraí, São Paulo, Brazil. Credit: Vishnu Gopal Grey-winged trumpeters watching a boa slide by in Guiana Space Centre, French Guiana. Credit: Hadrien Lalagüe Two Nubian ibex in battle in the Zin Desert, Israel. Credit: Amit Eshel A pod of orcas in the Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica. Credit: Bertie Gregory Toad tadpoles feast on a dead fledgling sparrow in Ojén, Málaga, Spain. Credit: Juan Jesús Gonzalez Ahumada A portrait of an ibex in Vercors Regional Natural Park, Rhône-Alpes, France. Credit: Luca Melcarne Firefly flashes in Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Tamil Nadu, India. Credit: Sriram Murali The curves of sandstone cliffs in Noss National Nature Reserve, Shetland, Scotland, UK. Credit: Rachel Bigsby An orca on the beaches in Cadzand-Bad, Zeeland, the Netherlands. Credit: Lennart Verheuvel A fungus releasing its spores in the forest in Mount Olympus, Pieria, Greece. Credit: Agorastos Papatsanis A hippopotamus and her two offspring resting in the lake in Kosi Bay, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa. Credit: Mike Korostelev Kittiwake chicks in an abandoned factory in Norway. Credit: Knut-Sverre Horn The polluted Ciliwung river in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. Credit: Joan de la Malla A new cross-country tourist railway line in Paamul, Quintana Roo, Mexico. Credit: Fernando Constantino Martínez Belmar The bobcats in the annual hunting competitions in Texas, USA. Credit: Karine Aigner A tri-spine horseshoe crab in Pangatalan Island, Palawan, the Philippines. Credit: Laurent Ballesta
