Badger Looking at Badger Wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2024

Matt Growcoot
A badger sniffs a wall featuring street art of a badger holding guns, silhouetted in black. Nearby, a sign reads, "Keep access clear at all times." The scene is lit with a warm glow, creating an intriguing urban wildlife encounter.
An ambling Eurasian badger, illuminated by a streetlight, appears to glance up at badger graffiti on a quiet road in England, UK. | Ian Wood / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A serendipitous photograph of a badger looking up at a graffiti of a gun-toting badger has won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2024.

Photographer Ian Wood beat off stiff competition to take the crown after he captured the double badger photo in St Leonards-in-Sea, EnglandThe people’s choice award received a record number of votes with over 76,000 wildlife photography and nature fans from around the world voting for their favorite image.

“Ian’s flawlessly timed image offers a unique glimpse of nature’s interaction with the human world, underscoring the importance of understanding urban wildlife,” says Dr Douglar Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum which develops and produces the photo competition. “His exceptional photograph serves as a powerful reminder that local nature and wildlife, often just outside our homes, can inspire and captivate us.”

The photo came about after residents of St Leonards-on-Sea began leaving scraps of food on the pavement for foxes. Wood noticed that the morsels also attracted badges from a nearby sett and so decided to set up a small hide on the edge of the road for this picture. His only light source was a lamppost above the ambling creature.

“The outpouring of badger love since my photo was nominated for the People’s Choice Award has been beautifully overwhelming,” Wood says via a press release. “Finding out that it has won is truly humbling. However, there is a darker side to this image. I live in rural Dorset where I’m on a re-wilding mission to enhance habitats for a huge array of wildlife. The badger cull – which is still ongoing – has decimated their numbers and I fear that unless the cull is stopped, we’ll only see badgers in urban settings in several parts of England. My hope is for this image to raise awareness of the damaging effect of the badger cull and help push for change.”

Highly Commended

Four photographs were awarded “Highly Commended” status which can be seen below. The four pictures and the winning photo were selected from a shortlist of 25 images chosen by the Natural History Museum.

A barn owl in flight emerges from the darkness of an open barn window at night. The barn's wooden exterior appears weathered and dark against a cloudy sky.
A ghostly barn owl exits the hayloft window of a derelict barn to hunt in fields outside Vancouver, Canada. | Jess Findlay / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Two porcupines are on dry grass. One stands upright with its quills fanned out, while the other, smaller porcupine sits nearby with fewer quills raised. Both are surrounded by a brown, grassy landscape.
A bloodied yet determined honey badger returns to finish off a Cape porcupine, which earlier had tried to defend itself in Botswana. | David Northall / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
A snow-capped volcano emits a faint red glow under a starry night sky. A circular, dark cloud hovers above the crater, enhancing the dramatic and mysterious atmosphere.
A double lenticular cloud is illuminated at nightfall by the lava emitted from the Villarrica volcano, Chile. | Francisco Negroni / Wildlife Photographer of the Year
A solitary polar bear stands in a vast, snowy white landscape, almost blending into the surroundings. The minimalistic scene is mostly white, emphasizing the bear's small, distant figure.
A stoat sits up and observes its territory as it blends perfectly into a snowy landscape in Belgium. | Michael d’Oultremont / Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A flagship exhibition of the images will be open until Sunday, June 29 in London. Details for which can be found here.

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