Powerful Image of Polar Bears Napping on Mud Instead of Ice Shortlisted for Major Photo Award

Powerful Image of Polar Bears Napping on Mud Instead of Ice Shortlisted for Major Photo Award https://ift.tt/XaSlTAO

The evocative image is among 24 finalists for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Nuveen People’s Choice Award 2026

Family Rest Christopher Paetkau (Canada).

Christopher Paetkau/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

NEED TO KNOW

• A polar bear family photo is shortlisted for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award
• The image highlights climate change’s impact on polar bears and shrinking sea ice
• Public voting is open until March 18, with winners announced on March 25

A quietly haunting photograph of a polar bear mother and her three cubs resting along the Hudson Bay coast in Canada has been shortlisted for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Nuveen People’s Choice Award 2026.

Captured by photographer Christopher Paetkau, the image shows the bears sprawled across bare ground, their once-white coats stained brown with mud. Paetkau photographed the family as they traveled north toward the Arctic, pausing during the summer heat to rest.

Never-ending Struggle Kohei Nagira (Japan).

Kohei Nagira/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

The image is one of 24 selected by the Natural History Museum, London, and a panel of photography and wildlife experts for this year’s People’s Choice Award, which is decided entirely by public vote.

The scene also captures the growing reality for polar bears and other animals that thrive in cold climates. As sea ice continues to shrink due to global warming, polar bears are spending more time on land, where hunting opportunities are limited.

Unlike other bear species, polar bears do not hibernate and traditionally relied on year-round access to sea ice to hunt seals. With that ice disappearing, the bears are increasingly forced to adapt to a strange new world on land.

Couple's Camouflage Artur Tomaszek (Poland).

Artur Tomaszek/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

“Whether showcasing fascinating behaviour or platforming a powerful story, this year’s selection of images is truly exceptional,” museum director Douglas Gurr said in a statement shared with Live Science.

Other shortlisted images span continents and species, each telling its own powerful story.

Lalith Ekanayake’s “Bond in Motion” features the intense gaze of a lion-tailed macaque mother and her baby as they race along a path in India’s Western Ghats. The endangered species survives in increasingly fragmented habitats as human activity erodes its environment.

Precious Cargo Thomas Hunt (UK).

Thomas Hunt/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

In “Couple’s Camouflage,” photographer Artur Tomaszek reveals a tiny male broad-headed bark spider perched on a much larger female in Thailand’s Khao Phra Thaeo forest, waiting patiently for the moment she moults so mating can begin.

Kohei Nagira’s unsettling “Never Ending Struggle” shows a sika deer in Japan carrying the severed, antler-locked head of a rival after a fatal battle — a stark portrait of survival and loss bound together. Thomas Hunt’s “Precious Cargo” offers a quieter moment: a cellar spider in England carefully carrying a cluster of eggs in her mouth, guarding them until they hatch.

Bond in Motion Lalith Ekanayake (Sri Lanka).

Lalith Ekanayake/Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Voting for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Nuveen People's Choice Award is open online through March 18, with the winning image and four runners-up announced March 25. The photos will be displayed in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London through July 2026.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by London's Natural History Museum.