Jaw-dropping images capturing the natural world, including an aging captive lion as well as an elephant wading through plastic, have been revealed as the winners and runners-up of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation's 2025 Environmental Photography Award.
The annual photography competition is split into five categories: Polar Wonders, Into the Forest, Ocean Worlds, Humanity versus Nature, and Change Makers: Reasons for Hope.
A shot of marine worms pushing plumes of sand from the tops of their cone-shaped burrows, captured by Angel Fitor in Spain in 2023, won the Ocean Worlds category and the overall grand prize, the foundation announced Tuesday (May 6).
"These burrowing worms play a pivotal role in maintaining oxygen and nutrient circulation in the upper layer of sediment on the seabed, an activity that generates an entire ecosystem hidden under the substrate," Fitor said in a statement. "On location, it was impossible to predict when the worms would be active. This photo is the result of two months' work, with twenty dives of five hours each."
Runners-up in this category included an image of a tiny octopus delicately balanced on top of jellyfish-like animals named salps, snapped in the Philippines in 2024 by Pietro Formis, and an eerie image of a leafy sea dragon off the Australian coast, photographed by Daniel Sly in 2024.
The winning image in the Polar Wonders category was a spectacular shot of a lion's mane jellyfish. The photo was taken off the coast of Greenland in 2019 by Galice Hoarau. "Autumn in the East Greenland fjords is teeming with life, especially planktonic species ranging from tiny copepods to large jellyfish such as this lion's mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) with its long stinging tentacles drifting elegantly through the water," Hoarau said in the statement.
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A melting iceberg drifting in the waters off Iceland, taken by Michaël Arzur in 2024, and a battle between two female musk oxen (Ovibos moschatus) in Norway, snapped by Miquel Angel Artús Illana in 2021, were named runners-up in this category.
A photo capturing a fierce fight between two male stag beetles, taken by Iacopo Nerozzi in Italy in 2022, won the Into the Forest category.
"During the mating season, male stag beetles (Lucanus cervus) go into a frenzy, with lively but harmless clashes, in which bigger males often have the advantage over smaller ones due to their impressive mandibles," Nerozzi said in the statement.
David Herasimtschuk's image of an adult and several juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), taken in the U.S. Pacific Northwest in 2023, and Santiago J. Monroy García's photograph of an Andean bear (Tremarctos ornatus) lurking in the Colombian forest, captured in 2023, were named runners-up.
In the Humanity versus Nature category, the winner was a picture taken by Amy Jones in 2023. It shows an elderly female Indo-Chinese tiger (Panthera tigris corbetti) named Salamas on a tiger farm in northern Thailand. "For over 20 years, she was confined in this cage and used as a breeding machine, producing cubs for industries ranging from tiger tourism to the illegal trade in skins, teeth, bones, claws and meat," Jones said in the statement. "Despite her frail and emaciated condition, Salamas survived the 12-hour journey to their 17-acre tiger sanctuary forest, where she was able to roam freely and experience grass beneath her paws and the warmth of the sun on her fur for the first time in two decades. Unfortunately, Salamas died nine months after being rescued."
An image of an Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) wading through a soup of plastic waste in Sri Lanka, taken by Lakshitha Karunarathna in 2023, and a photo of rattlesnakes piled up in a pit in Texas, taken by Javier Aznar in 2020, were the runners-up.
The winner of the Change Makers: Reasons for Hope category was an image of a baby loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) that Fitor took in a recovery center in Spain in 2022. The runners-up were two images of rehabilitated armadillos and anteaters, both by Fernando Faciole.
Faciole's image of a South American tapir (Tapirus terrestris) recovering from severe burn injuries in Brazil in 2024 won the Public Award, while the Student's Choice Award winner was Bambang Wirawan's photograph of a Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) in Indonesia, photographed from inside the bloody rib cage of its prey.
"Images prompt conversation and consideration of how we can protect and value these irreplaceable environments across the planet. They cut through apathy, capture reality, evoke empathy, and ignite action," Ami Vitale, a National Geographic photographer and documentary filmmaker and president of the awards' jury, said in the statement. "Through this visual medium, we reconnect people with nature, highlighting not only the perils but also the promise and the hope that exists all around us."
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