Badger admiring Banksy-style image wins wildlife photo competition (2025)

Published

5 February 2025

A badger appearing to admire a Banksy-style graffiti version of itself has won the Natural History Museum's 2024 Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award.

Captured on a quiet road in St Leonards-on-Sea, England by British photographer Ian Wood.

Ian had noticed badgers emerging from a nearby sett to forage for food scraps left out for foxes.

"I spent the best part of two years photographing them, and this particular photo came about as an idea. I thought it'd be fun to put the graffiti there and see if I could get a badger walking underneath it," he told the BBC.

Ian sees a deeper message in his photo around the controversial subject of badger culling.

Badger culling has been used to contain bovine tuberculosis but will end in England within five years as part of a shift in the fight against the disease, the government said last year.

Ian called badger culling "a national disgrace" and said: "I would swap this award immediately for the government to rescind all existing badger culling licenses."

The 25 nominated images for this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice Award received a record-breaking 76,000 votes from wildlife photography and nature fans worldwide.

In addition to the winning image, four other finalists were highly commended.

All five images will be displayed online and at London's Natural History Museum until 29 June.

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