South African wildlife photographer Wim van den Heever earned the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year with Ghost Town Visitor, a night-time photo of a brown hyena wandering through a deserted diamond mining town in Kolmanskop, Namibia. (Wim van den Heever via CBC News)
A haunting nighttime image of a lone hyena has earned South African photographer Wim van den Heever the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025. The prestigious award, organized by London’s Natural History Museum, celebrates its 61st year of recognizing exceptional wildlife imagery.
Van den Heever’s winning shot, titled Ghost Town Visitor, captured a brown hyena moving through the eerie ruins of Kolmanskop, Namibia — once a bustling diamond hub. The elusive creature, one of the world’s rarest hyenas, was photographed during its nocturnal journey toward the Namib Desert coast. It planned to hunt Cape fur seal pups.
A Dream a Decade in the Making
For van den Heever, the image represents more than a photograph — it’s the culmination of a ten-year pursuit. The photographer first noticed the hyena's tracks in the ghost town a decade ago. He then became determined to capture one in this haunting setting.
“Every time I visited Kolmanskop, I set up camera traps hoping for that perfect shot,” he said. “It took me ten years to get this single frame — a brown hyena against the ghostly ruins. I was ecstatic.”
His dedication paid off with an image that not only mesmerized judges but also spoke to the quiet resilience of wildlife in human-abandoned spaces.
Young Photographer Captures Life After Destruction
Italy’s Andrea Dominizi, winner of the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, delivered a strikingly different vision of nature’s endurance. His photograph, After the Destruction, shows a longhorn beetle perched on a moss-covered log overlooking the rusting remains of a logging machine in the Lepini Mountains of central Italy.
Andrea Dominizi won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title with After the Destruction, a photo of a longhorn beetle in Lazio, Italy. (Andrea Dominizi)
The image serves as a subtle reminder of nature’s persistence — the tiny beetle standing as witness to the aftermath of deforestation. Judges praised Dominizi’s work for blending beauty with environmental awareness.
Canadian Photographer Shines Again
Among the 19 category winners, Canadian photographer Shane Gross stood out for a captivating shot, Like an Eel out of Water. The Nanaimo, B.C.-based photographer, who also won the grand title last year, captured the image while working in the Seychelles archipelago for the Save Our Seas Foundation.
Gross was documenting ecological recovery efforts on D’Arros Island. The island recently became a “no-take” marine protected area, where fishing and the collection of seashells are banned. The goal was to observe how ecosystems heal when fully shielded from human interference.
Although the island teems with sharks, manta rays, and nesting sea turtles, Gross sought something rarely seen. Scientists introduced him to peppered moray eels, small and secretive creatures that slither onto the shore at low tide to feed on stranded fish.
“I thought, ‘That’s something I’ve never seen before,’” Gross said. “It took nearly my entire expedition to get the shot. The eels were shy but fascinating.”
The Hidden World of Eels
Gross described the eels wrestled with fish larger than themselves, twisting into knots or teaming up to tear off pieces. He was awed by their ability to hunt both above and below the water. He hopes his photograph will inspire curiosity about lesser-known species. “Many people focus on sharks or turtles,” he explained. “But species need entire ecosystems to survive. Protecting everything — even the small and overlooked — is what truly matters.”
Peppered moray eels (Gymnothorax pictus) hunt in the intertidal zone often coming completely out of the water in their pursuit. Image made on D'Arros Island, Seychelles. (Shane Gross)
Exhibition Opens in London and Toronto
This year’s winning images were selected from more than 60,000 global entries. A total of 100 winning photographs will be showcased at the Natural History Museum in London.
Canadian audiences will get a chance to view the exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto from November 8, 2025, to March 29, 2026.
Each frame tells a story — of patience, persistence, and the fragile beauty of life enduring in unexpected places.
