Oscar Whitfield wins Young Wildlife Photographer title with dung beetle image

Oscar Whitfield was on a family game drive in Zimbabwe when he saw a dung beetle struggling up a patch of sand. The beetle was pushing a ball of dung uphill, with a line of flies following behind.

This moment caught Whitfield’s eye. He was only 14 at the time. He captured the rare moment. Titled ‘Labour of Love’, the photograph earned the British photographer the Young Grand Title at the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Labour of Love

Oscar Whitfield, who lives near Victoria Falls, spotted the dung beetle while on a family game drive in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi National Park. He wanted to capture the moment in all its glory.

So, instead of standing over the beetle to take the picture, he lay down in the dust. His camera sat at the same height as the insect. He tried different angles and compositions before settling on one. The result was simply perfect. The black-and-white photograph captured how hard the beetle works at a job that looks simple from above.

“I hope that when people look at the photograph, they can see too, and maybe appreciate how much can be happening in a small moment in the natural world,” Whitfield said after winning the Young Grand Title, the BBC reported.

More winning photographs

From a bumblebee captured mid-flight to a blackbird singing at dawn, this year’s winning photographs celebrate the beauty and diversity of the natural world, capturing extraordinary moments that often go unnoticed. Take a look at the winning entries for Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026.

The Aftermath

Italian photographer Federico Veronesi won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 title for capturing a ‘heartbreakingly poignant’ image of a female elephant carrying a dead calf through Namibia’s Huab River Valley.

“Of all the 20 years I’ve spent photographing animals, this is the most heart-wrenching, fascinating and dramatic,” Veronesi said. He described the photograph as “revealing of the depth and complexity of the emotions, the feelings of the animals”.According to Kathy Moran, chair of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year jury, the winning photograph “says it all”. “This photograph works on so many levels. Emotionally, it’s a gut punch, heartbreakingly poignant.

Intellectually, it’s proof that animals have cognition.”

Flight of the Bumblebee

Amelie Davis, who is in the 10 Years and Under category, took her winning photograph in her garden in Surrey, England, using her dad’s smartphone. She proved that a perfect photograph does not need a plane ticket or fancy cameras. The picture freezes one wingbeat from a common carder bumblebee as it gets ready to land on a flower. The bee looks almost still, which is the point.

The moment lasts only a fraction of a second.

The Meeting Place

James Lewin captured the animals in their habitat. His black-and-white photograph shows a young bull elephant spraying zebras at a waterhole. He used an infrared-converted camera to soften the harsh light and create a dreamlike effect.

Birdsong Painted in Light

Konrad Gräeter went to a vineyard in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, at sunrise. Spring is when male blackbirds climb to high places and sing to attract a mate.

Dawn is when they sing their most complicated songs, and Gräeter was there to capture the moment.

Shifting Sand

Sitaram Raul spent his nights in India’s Thar Desert looking for scorpions. He saw many of them hunting in the dark. Once the sun came up and the temperature climbed, the scorpions had to get out of the heat. This one dug into the shifting sand, and Raul caught it halfway through the process. A perfect moment!Meanwhile, the exhibition opens at the Natural History Museum on Friday, 16 October 2026.