Sparring saigas, a leaping whale, and a motherly beetle are some of this year’s coolest wildlife photos.
Nature can be equal parts majestic, heartwarming, and terrifying. The winning entries of the 2025 BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology image competition illustrate that complexity in spades.
Biologists, zoologists, and paleontologists from across the world sent in submissions to this year’s contest. The photos were sorted into four categories: “Collective Social Behavior,” “Life in Motion,” “Colorful Strategies,” and “Research in Action.” But the overall winner (seen in the headline image above) was a snapshot taken by Andrey Giljov, showing two male saiga antelopes in a sparring match as part of their preparation for the mating season; this naturally involves butting heads with potential rivals.
“Saiga fights in spring, outside of the tournament season, are quieter and more about training than determining status. However, the males take every opportunity to practice,” said Giljov, a vertebrate zoologist and senior lecturer at Saint Petersburg State University in Russia, in an editorial detailing the contest winners.
The annual photo competition, now in its second year, is a joint venture from the journals BMC Ecology and Evolution and BMC Zoology; it’s the successor to contests that were separately run by the two journals. The photos are judged by the journals’ editors and senior members of the editorial board. This year’s winning entries and close seconds featured some of the biggest creatures on Earth as well as its smallest.
Case in point, Alwin Hardenbol’s incredible photo of a breaching humpback whale that he captured from a rigid inflatable boat in Varanger, Norway.
“Breaching is a fascinating behavior from a scientific perspective, as it is still inconclusive what purpose it serves,” said Hardenbol, a researcher at the Natural Resources Institute Finland whose photo was a runner-up in the Life in Motion category.
