A stunning line-up of images that “highlight the diversity and grandeur of wildlife, plants and landscapes” was selected from around 30,000 submissions.
The National Wildlife Federation has announced the winners of its 54th annual photo contest, with a photo of a female blue arctic fox on Alaska’s St. George Island taking home the top prize.
The stunning lineup of images “highlighting the diversity and grandeur of wildlife, plants, and landscapes around the world” was selected from nearly 30,000 submissions from more than 3,200 photographers from across the U.S. and around the world, the magazine said.
View award-winning photos
National Wildlife magazine editorial director Jennifer Wehunt said in a statement that the winning entries were “amazing glimpses of the sheer strength of nature, from the rush of lava in Iceland to the shimmering burn scars set up to suppress wildfires in Pennsylvania,” and presented “surprises that subvert the ordinary, from a nautical hitchhiker’s night bus to a fox straight out of a fairy tale.”
“It’s an amazing ability, it’s a force of nature,” Wehunt continued.
National Wildlife said the photographers in the contest, which received entries from all over the world, “range from award-winning professionals to passionate amateurs to young budding naturalists” and “are helping to inspire people to take an interest in wild animals and wild lands.”
“By submitting their work, each photographer supports the National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to protect wildlife species and their habitats, a mission that is more important today than ever,” the magazine said. Entries for this year’s contest were accepted from January 15th to April 6th. Meanwhile, submissions for next year’s contest will open on January 14, 2026 and run until March 22, 2026.
Contest categories, winners
Kathleen Borshanian won the $5,000 grand prize for her photo of a female blue arctic fox from St. George Island, Alaska.
National Wildlife said of the winning image: “The Salt Lake City photographer used a telephoto lens to capture the moment while hiding behind a patch of grass without disturbing the fox or its kits, which were sleeping nearby.”
First and second place awards were also awarded in each of eight categories, including:
| Category | 1st place | 2nd place |
| mammalian | Dina Sveinsson | mark panask |
| baby animals | Stefan Förster | robert cook |
| bird | Jack Gee | Ajay Kumar Singh |
| landscape and plants | J. Fritz Lamp | Jason Mirandi |
| people in nature | Mike Mezur II | yabril fan |
| Other wild animals | massimo giorgetta | Lemna Bekah |
| young nature photographer | leo dale | Jasper Jonalagadda |
| cell phone | Paige Rudolph | jess stegall |
Meanwhile, solo winner Zhengze Xu was also selected in the Portfolio category.
The winner of the Portfolio category will win $750, with first place winning $500 and second place winning $250 in each of the eight categories.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Contact her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
