Announcing the Winners of the California Academy of Sciences’ 12th Annual BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 15, 2025) — A breathtaking image of a mother lemur precipitously leaping between jagged rocks in Madagascar, her baby clinging tightly to her back, has taken top honors in the 12th annual BigPicture: Natural World Photography Competition, the California Academy of Sciences announced today. The unveiling of winning images is timed with Nature Photography Day, June 15, an annual celebration encouraging people to capture and share the beauty of the natural world—perfectly aligning with BigPicture’s mission to inspire awe and conservation through powerful imagery.

In addition, the California Academy of Sciences and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) are working together to offer a BigPicture: Natural World Photography traveling exhibit (currently 2024) in the form of 2D panels that can be displayed in museums, science centers, libraries, and other public or private spaces.

Behind the Scenes of the Grand Prize Winning Photo

To capture the essence of Madagascar’s remarkably agile lemurs, photographer Donglin Zhou traveled to the country’s rugged Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park. Setting out before sunrise on a November morning, Zhou spent over an hour climbing her way to the top of a jagged limestone peak, hoping for a close encounter with the elusive brown lemurs (Eulemur fulvus). For most of the day, sightings were disappointingly distant, but as the sun dipped low, a small troop descended. When one mother lemur, with a baby clinging to her back, made her big jump over a deep crevice, Zhou captured her in a single, breathtaking instant. The resulting photograph stole the hearts of the competition’s jury, who awarded it the highest honor: Grand Prize.

“Donglin Zhou’s photo is pure magic. The flow of the lemurs across the spires leads our eyes through the frame, culminating in the lemur captured mid-air in a ray of light over the massive chasm below. With all of the lemurs lined up so perfectly, at first glance, it looks like a painting,” said Suzi Eszterhas, BigPicture jury chair. “In addition to masterfully capturing incredible behavior and ethereal light, the photographer has also created a captivating sense of place. What’s more, this image serves as a reminder of the conservation crisis in Madagascar and what we stand to lose if we don’t take action to protect these habitats.”

Global, Powerful Images of the Natural World

World-class photographers representing nearly 60 countries submitted over 8,000 images to this year’s competition, with each submission capturing the remarkable beauty and awe-inspiring splendor of the natural world. A gallery of this year’s winning images and select finalists was recently published by bioGraphic, the Academy’s independent online magazine about biodiversity and the official media sponsor for the BigPicture competition. Gallery photos and captions are available for syndication to interested media outlets upon request.

2025 category winners include:

• Aquatic Life Winner: “Octopus Mother” by Kat Zhou, capturing the fierce devotion of a Caribbean reef octopus mother who protects her eggs to the point of exhaustion, dying shortly after they hatch.
• Art of Nature Winner: “Unwavering Energy” by Sandra Bartocha, representing the many facets of waves across the globe that transport nutrients, plankton, animals and people.
• Winged Life Winner: “Tiny Tent-Makers” by Dvir Barkay, illustrating the fruit-eating Honduran white bat’s quest to create life-sustaining tents out of heliconia leaves.
• Terrestrial Wildlife Winner: “Part of the Pack” by Amit Eshel, revealing his brief but intimate encounter with a snow white Arctic wolf pack on Canada’s Ellesmere Island.
• Human/Nature Winner: “Black Rhino Revival” by Ami Vitale, demonstrating the danger that people are willing to face to restore an imperiled species such as the black rhinoceros.
• Landscapes, Waterscapes, and Flora Winner: “Ice See You” by Marcin Giba, documenting a fissure on a foot-marked frozen lake in the southern Polish city of Rybnik representative of the coal-driven smog enveloping the city in a hazardous haze.
• Photo Story Winner: “In My Backyard” by Takuya Ishiguro, takes viewers into the complexity and beauty of insects in urban areas in Japan.

Awards for this year’s competition include $12,300 in cash prizes for the winning images selected by a diverse panel of judges, including Jury Chair and renowned wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas, joined by editor Sophie Stafford and award-winning nature and conservation photographers and filmmakers Fernando Faciole, Britta Jaschinski, Anthony Ochieng Onyango, Peter Mather, and Aishwarya Sridhar.

View this year’s Grand Prize, First Place, and category finalists here. In Fall 2025, all winning images will be shown in the annual BigPicture photography exhibit, set to open on Saturday, October 4, 2025 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA, with a first look at the Academy's 21+ NightLife event on Thursday, October 2.

You Be the Judge: People’s Choice Award

BigPicture is also continuing its People’s Choice Award, which enables individuals from all over the world to vote for their favorite images from a pool of 20 high-scoring BigPicture submissions. The winning image will receive $300.

Beginning July 1, 2025, members of the public can cast a vote for their favorite People’s Choice Award photo. The voting period ends July 31 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time. The People’s Choice Award winner will be announced in early August, and the winning images will be viewable in the exhibition as well.

“We continue to be amazed by the beautiful, powerful, and truly surprising images submitted to the BigPicture competition by some of the world’s most talented nature photographers,” says Rhonda Rubinstein, creative director at the California Academy of Sciences and co-founder of BigPicture. “While our jury brings a professional lens to what makes an award-winning photograph, we also recognize that wildlife photography resonates differently with everyone. The People’s Choice Award is a way for our global audience to share what moves them most. In 2024, over 5,000 people voted for this one award.”

Since launching in 2014, BigPicture has established a strong reputation within the photography community, receiving a four-star rating from The Photographer's Guide to Photo Contests by Photo Shelter for six consecutive years. In 2018, Chronicle Books released Wonders: Spectacular Moments in Nature Photography, featuring more than 100 breathtaking images from the BigPicture competition. To coincide with BigPicture’s 10th anniversary, the Academy produced Seeing It All: Women Photographers Expose the Planet. With a foreword by renowned marine scientists and ocean advocate Dr. Sylvia Earle, Seeing It All is a dramatic photography book featuring 11 visionary women photographers from BigPicture.

Sign up here to stay up-to-date on all things BigPicture and receive an email update when next year’s competition opens.
 

IMAGES AND CAPTIONS FOR PRESS USE

BigPicture winning photos available here, with select image captions from bioGraphic.