Natural science Outstanding animal photographs at the Natural History Museum Basel
A hyena in a ghost town, an elephant in a garbage dump, an aesthetic close-up of a flamingo: the Natural History Museum Basel presents the best selection of the international Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
19.11.2025, 14:09
SDA
The competition, organized by the Natural History Museum in London, is considered the most prestigious of its kind, as was revealed at the media tour on Wednesday. And probably the most successful. Last year, the presentation in Basel alone - the only one in Switzerland - attracted 95,000 visitors to the museum.
A jury selected the best 100 photographs from over 60,000 submissions from around 4,000 photographers from all over the world. 98 of these are now on display as large-format backlit images - two photographs were subsequently disqualified because it emerged that they had been retouched.
One photographer from Switzerland is taking part: 17-year-old Leana Kuster from Männedorf ZH with an aesthetic close-up of a flamingo and Hussain Aga Khan from Geneva with a photograph of a friendly smiling river dolphin.
The exhibition is divided into 16 chapters, ranging from artistic scenes to the category of vertebrates and photojournalism, in which the focus is not on beauty but on the vulnerability of nature.
Newcomers represented with three pictures
Photographs by young people and children are on display in special categories. Jamie Smart from Great Britain, who is only nine years old, is the only one represented with three award-winning pictures.
The young photographers also represent one of the two winners of the competition: Andrea Dominizi from Italy with a photograph of a beetle that appears to be observing an excavator destroying its habitat. The winner in the adult category is Wim van der Heever from South Africa, who captured the ghostly scene of a black-backed hyena in a ghost town with a photo trap.
The exhibition at the Natural History Museum Basel is on display until June 28, 2026. In addition, the museum is organizing a nature snapshot competition that will run until 22 February 2026.
