The latest Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition opens at the Canterbury Museum Pop-Up on 7 November, just weeks after opening at the Natural History Museum in London.
Direct and express from London, the fresh batch of 100 spectacular animals features a polar bear peering into an ice hole in search of a seal snack, a chameleon enduring a sandstorm in the Namib Desert and a black bear cooling off in a California backyard swimming pool.
The world-renowned competition and exhibition, now in its sixty-second year, is the most prestigious nature photography event of its kind. This year, a panel of experts selected 100 photographs from a record-breaking 65,403 entries from 121 countries worldwide.
Norwegian photographer Audun Rikardsen captured this photograph of a polar bear. He noticed bear tracks near a hole in the Arctic sea ice north of Svalbard. Seals use the holes to surface for air, but it can be risky when hungry polar bears are around. Audun set up an underwater camera with a motion sensor in the hole and waited. Eight hours later, a bear triggered the camera, producing this striking photograph, titled Icy Window.
Canterbury Museum Pop-Up, 66 Gloucester Street, Christchurch. Exhibition runs 7 November 2026 to 26 April 2027, 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Free entry; donations appreciated. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is on loan from the Natural History Museum, London.