Urban badger shot wins 2024 wildlife photography award

Whether it's an urban badger foraging, a honey badger besting a porcupine, or a stoat blending seamlessly into the snow, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2024 did not disappoint.

Image: Ian Wood, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

An ambling Eurasian badger, illuminated by a streetlight, appears to glance up at badger graffiti on a quiet road in England, UK. Photograph by Ian Wood, winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award 2024.

'It's not a perfect likeness, but I give it a B for effort'

British photographer Ian Wood won this year's competition with this shot of a Eurasian badger seemingly inspecting badger graffiti. As Wood puts it, "badgers are doing quite well in some urban environments." He got the winning shot by hiding overnight near his home.

Image: Ian Wood, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

'Come back here, you spiky snack'

Honey badgers might not be big, but they're notoriously ferocious, fearless, and — if this image by David Northall is anything to go by — perhaps foolhardy. The badger ultimately won this mutually painful encounter in Botswana, finishing the porcupine off and dragging it to its underground den. Wildlife lovers "highly commended" this shot and the following photos in this gallery.

Image: David Northall, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

World Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards

Night gathers, and now my watch begins

This shot by Jess Findlay, taken outside Vancouver in Canada, is titled "Edge of Night." A barn owl is leaving its home in a derelict barn to start a night on the hunt. Jess set up an invisible beam that would trigger a flash when the owl flew out of the barn. Ten nights of patient observation paid off with this end product.

Image: Jess Findlay, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

As darkness sets in, a ghostly male Barn Owl exits the hayloft window of a derelict barn, to begin his nightly hunt in an agricultural area just outside the city of Vancouver, British Columbia. Photo by Jess Findlay.

Spot the stoat secreted in the snow (we promise he is there)

Look again. And again. You're seeking two black eyes and a nose. Belgian photographer Michel d'Oultremont managed to spot it out in the wild and get this sublime shot of an animal that is all but invisible in the winter snows.

Image: Michel d’Oultremont, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Chilean lava lamp

Chilean photographer Francisco Negroni also spent 10 nights near the Villarica volcano in Chile waiting for this perfect merger of cloud and lava. At nigthfall, the double lenticular cloud settled over the crater, illuminated by the lava emitted from one of the country's most active volcanoes.

Image: Francisco Negroni, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

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