Stunning images highlight fight to save Earth’s rich biodiversity

abdulmanannet77@gmail.comOctober 8, 2025

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Stunning images highlight fight to save Earth’s rich biodiversity

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“It had a strange appearance, like an alien, but it wasn’t angry. It stayed still on the branch all the time,” said Kim Hui Yu, who photographed the flat-faced long-horned beetle in the image above during a family trip to Gunung Jerai, on Malaysia’s west coast.

A light bulb in a mosquito net attracted invertebrates during the night. In the morning, she chose the most colorful ones to photograph. “I want people to know that all creatures, even the smallest ones, matter. So don’t destroy the forest.”

The photo, titled Strangeris one of eight biodiversity exhibits featured as part of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 exhibition, which opens in London on October 17. Images are from previous entries in the competition.

The exhibit also includes a chalkboard-sized map of biodiversity levels, as measured by the Biodiversity Integrity Index created by museum researchers.

Image by Hilary O'Leary This four-month-old black rhino calf was found dehydrated and lost in the African bush. Black rhinos are known for hiding their young. Here, evidence suggests that a white rhino bull came upon the hiding calf, which then followed the bull by mistake. The young are raised in the wildest nature possible, with minimal human intervention. But it will need protection and feeding until it is two and a half or three years old, when rhinos usually become independent of their mothers. Hilary was heading to work one morning when she spotted the calf among a group of anti-poaching scouts as they prepared for the day ahead. “It felt like he was part of the team,” she says. — A four-month-old black rhino calf

Hilary O’Leary

Hannah McCartney, who runs the competition, says images can have a powerful impact: the aim is to make visitors care enough to then take action. A great example is Innocence betrayed by Hilary O’Leary, featuring a 4-month-old black rhino calf nosing at an anti-poaching scout. He was found lost in the bush.

Image by Marc Graf With the promise of sunshine on the mountaintops, Marc set out for a hike in hopes of capturing a few atmospheric shots of the sunset. The lower slopes were engulfed in thick clouds, but they cleared as he rose. At the end of the day, Marc contemplated “a world wrapped in cotton”, the soft evening light filtering through the mist. Berchtesgaden is the only national park in the German Alps. It protects more than 200 square kilometers of forests, valleys, glaciers and mountains. One of the wildest places in Central Europe, it is home to deer, roe deer, marmots, chamois and ibexes. Golden eagles also breed there, at their northern limit in the European Alps. — Berchtesgaden National Park in the German Alps

Marc Graf

High and wild by Marc Graf takes a very different approach to what we might lose. This photo of trees and rocks emerging from sunny clouds was taken in Berchtesgaden, a national park in the German Alps.

Image by Jaime Culebras Jaime was hoping to see this particular species of harlequin toad while working with a conservation group. The couple he found were in amplexus? a mating behavior in which a male fertilizes eggs when they are released from a female's body? and it may have remained that way for weeks. To capture toads? rich colors and patterns, Jaime carefully positioned the lightning bolts around the branch. The species pictured may be surviving, but, like many amphibians, it is vulnerable to a fungal disease that invades the surface layers of its skin. This fungus contributed to the disappearance or extinction of most species of harlequin toads. It is encouraging that monitoring and land protection are now improving this toad's chances of survival. — An intimate moment between harlequin toads

Jaime Culebras

That of Jaime Culebras The happy couple zooms in on mating harlequin toads in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta National Natural Park, Colombia. Most harlequin toad species are endangered.

Lord Howe Island and its surrounding waters are home to the world's southernmost tropical coral reef. The unique mix of tropical and temperate species and habitats is the result of converging currents. More than 318 species of marine algae are present here, of which 47 species (15%) are endemic. The unique algae-dominated reefs of the southern lagoon are a unique feature of the Lord Howe Island marine ecosystem explored by a Marine Ranger. — Marine Guard Caitlin Woods off Lord Howe Island

Justin Giligan

Rich thoughts by Justin Gilligan was photographed off the coast of Lord Howe Island, between Australia and New Zealand. The snorkeler among the extraordinary seaweed is sea ranger Caitlin Woods.

Image by Morgan Heim Morgan Heim (USA) reveals an intimate encounter between a beetle and a rabbit. Morgan set up camera traps outside pygmy rabbit burrows in Washington's Columbia Basin to observe their comings and goings. She was delighted to capture the moment one of the rabbits sniffed out a stink beetle that had taken refuge in its burrow. The beetle does not appear to have felt threatened by the burrow owner, as usually when intimidated it will raise its abdomen and release a stench. The pygmy rabbit is the only rabbit native to North America that digs burrows, which, as Morgan discovered, provide shelter for many other species, including stink beetles, short-horned pygmy lizards, and chipmunks. With their habitat in the Columbia Basin increasingly overgrazed and cleared for crops, conservation efforts were needed to protect these rabbits. Today, thanks to the introduction of captive-bred individuals, vaccination against infectious diseases and protection of the shrub-steppe habitat, the population of pygmy rabbits in the basin stands at approximately 150 individuals and continues to grow. — An interspecies confrontation

Morgane Heim

A close encounter between a pygmy rabbit and a stink beetle – one of many species that take advantage of rabbit burrows – was captured in Terrier Companions by Morgan Heim in the Columbia Basin, Washington State.

The image of Owen Hearn Harvest time at Owen's grandparents' house? The farm attracts birds of prey to feed on small, fleeing mammals, and it also attracts Owen, with his camera in hand. — A red kite takes flight in the United Kingdom

Owen Hearn

Flight paths by Owen Hearn juxtaposes a close-up view of a red kite with the distant outline of an airplane. The photo was taken at a site in Bedfordshire in the United Kingdom, once reserved for London’s third major airport. Although the recovery of the red kite is a success, the UK is one of the most nature-poor countries in the world, according to McCartney.

Laurent Ballesta (France) conducts dives below freezing to reveal the diversity of life under the Antarctic ice. Living towers of marine invertebrates punctuate the seabed off Adélie Land, 32 meters beneath the ice of East Antarctica. In the center, a tree-shaped sponge is draped in life, from giant ribbon worms to starfish. Antarctica's extreme conditions, along with its isolation, are responsible for its remarkable underwater biodiversity. An estimated 17,000 species of marine invertebrates are found here, many of which are found nowhere else in the world and are highly adapted and therefore vulnerable to warming water temperatures. — Life under the ice off the coast of Antarctica

Laurent Ballesta

At Laurent BallestaPyramid of Life shows the range of organisms beneath the sea ice of East Antarctica, including giant ribbon worms and starfish.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year is now in its 61st year, with judges choosing the best from 60,000 entries, up from 341 in 1965. The winners will be announced on October 14.

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abdulmanannet77@gmail.comOctober 8, 2025

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