Here are the most amazing images of nature in 2025.
From the depths of the oceans to deserts, mountains and the Amazon rainforest, among acrobatic gorillas and sea lions, this year’s most extraordinary nature photographs show the diversity of breathtaking nature in all its glory.
sea lion
In this striking image, a lioness gazes into the distance on a rock-strewn beach on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, while storm waves crash in the background.
A small group of desert lions left their hunting grounds and moved to the Atlantic Ocean in search of prey. And Griet Van Malderen captured this radical change in animal behavior.
The ghost town hyena
It took nature photographer Wim van den Heever 10 years to capture this iconic image of a brown hyena roaming an abandoned mining town in Namibia.
Hyenas often use deserted structures to shelter from the intense desert heat and even raise their young in dilapidated buildings.
The pink dolphin, feared and revered
Hussain Aga Khan captured this image of the mysterious pink dolphin of the Amazon region, feared and revered by indigenous forest communities.
Pink polar bears
Always associated with the white ice of the Arctic, two young polar bears appear in this image by wildlife photographer Roie Galitz in a colorful sea, playing on pink flowers in Nunavut, Canada, in August 2025.
Cat on top of the mountains
WWF India captured this image of the elusive Pallas’s cat, the first photographic evidence that the species lives in the mountains of the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
The photo was taken at around 5,000 meters above sea level.
The organization’s research used more than 130 cameras installed in the remote Mago Chu Valley. It also documented the highest elevation records ever found of common leopards, clouded leopards, marbled cats and several other animal species.
The fisherman’s story
This incredible photo shows a torpedo fish capturing its prey right under the beak of a little heron.
Qinrong Yang captured this feeding frenzy at Yundang Lake, near his home in southeast China. She was among the winners of the famous Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
gorilla acrobat
This photo won the 2025 Wildlife Comedy Award.
In the misty Virunga Mountains of Rwanda, a young male gorilla demonstrates his acrobatic skills. He cartwheels and performs acrobatics, kicking the air in a clearing.
Underwater “Aurora”
A turtle swims through the ethereal cloud of an “underwater aurora” near the coast of the Japanese island of Satsuma-Iojima.
This image was a finalist for the 2025 Ocean Photographer of the Year award. Its author is Hitomi Tsuchiya.
Japan is located at the western end of the Pacific Ring of Fire. With a length of 40,000 kilometers, it almost entirely surrounds the Pacific Ocean. This is where most of the planet’s active volcanoes are located.
The ocean’s extraordinary color is due to iron-rich substances expelled from underwater hydrothermal vents called “iron mounds.”
ocean engineer
Stingrays stir up sand on the ocean floor to escape hungry predators or to hide while they pursue prey. They can move thousands of tons of sand per year, reshaping deep-sea habitats and transporting nutrients across the seafloor.
Ysabela Coll captured this image off the coast of Mexico and placed third in the Fine Art category of the 2025 Ocean Photographer of the Year competition.
Brooder mouth
This male fish of the Australian species Vincentia novaehollandiae “hatches” the eggs of its young in its mouth.
Once the female has released a mass of eggs, the male fertilizes them and appears as if he is going to swallow them.
In fact, it collects the fertilized eggs in its mouth to incubate them. This behavior is known as paternal mouth brooding.
Daniel Sly photographed this devoted father during a night swim at a busy fishing and ferry pier in Sydney Harbour, Australia. The image was a finalist for the 2025 Ocean Photographer of the Year award.
The “Mad Hatter”
Georgina Steytler captured the unusual helmet of a skeletonizing gum-leaf caterpillar known as the ‘Mad Hatter’.
The translucent tower is made of ancient protective helmets that the caterpillar wears every time it sheds its skin. It is believed to help ward off predator attacks.
The photo was one of the winners of the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.
Spider Lights
Simone Baumeister captured this surreal image of a weaver spider on a pedestrian bridge in the middle of the city of Ibbenbüren, Germany. The spider is sitting on its web, surrounded by car headlights.
Weaver spider species can be found all over the world. They create the famous spiral webs from a central point.
Using its legs as measuring sticks, the weaver spider first builds a non-adhesive structure, then superimposes a sticky “capture cord” over it.
With this, the spider can stand on its architectural work of art and wait for its prey to fly away and fall into the trap.
The photo was one of the winners of the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
Luminous jug
Chien Lee’s image of a fluorescent plant won the Plants and Mushrooms category of the 2025 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
Most plants absorb necessary nutrients from the soil, but pitcher plants are carnivorous. They capture unfortunate prey that lands on their sticky edge and throw them into a pool of digestive juices, where they slowly dissolve.
Lee used an ultraviolet flash to illuminate the pitcher plant with an eerie purple glow shortly after sunset.
Read the original version of this report (in English) on the site BBC Earth.
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