The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards revealed their 2026 finalists this week, drawn from a record field of more than 10,000 entries submitted from 112 countries, according to Popular Science and Colossal. Forty individual photographs made the cut, alongside separate finalists in an under-16 category, four photo portfolios and nine videos.
The images lean hard into anthropomorphism: Tanner Mansell's "Orangutan with Attitude," shot in Borneo, appears to show the ape flipping off the camera after a meal. Andy Rouse's "Doris with Her Hat," from Sri Lanka, catches a water buffalo mid-head-lift so that the vegetation draped over it reads as an elaborate bonnet. In Paolo Torre's "Elvis," photographed in Brazil's Pantanal wetlands, a caiman surfaces with a clump of plants arranged across its head like a 1950s pompadour. Other finalists include Barbara Seiberl-Stark's Zimbabwean lion cubs mid-shove in "Push Over," and Kevin Lohman's California squirrel repeatedly tackling an unbothered owl in "Are You Kidding Me?"
The contest, founded in 2015 by photographers Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, has always pitched itself as conservation messaging in a punchline's clothing. "We use humour to get people to feel empathy towards wildlife," Sullam told reporters, arguing that laughter is an easier entry point to caring about animals than grim statistics. The awards partner with wildlife charities and ask entrants to confirm images weren't staged or baited.
Online voting for the public's own pick, the Sterna People's Choice Award, is open now on the contest's website. The Overall Winner, category winners and Highly Commended entries won't be named until an awards ceremony in London on December 8; prizes include Nikon camera equipment and, for the top photographer, a safari trip with a Masai Mara outfitter. Past winners have gone on to sell prints and license images for conservation campaigns, and organizers say several of this year's finalists have already started circulating widely on social media ahead of the formal result — proof, Sullam has argued before, that a funny photo of a disgruntled squirrel can travel further online than a straightforward one of an endangered species ever would.