The cutest, weirdest, and most comedic animal photos and videos of the year have been released.
Perhaps you might well up when you see an elephant covering its eyes with its trunk, as if participating in a game of hide and seek. Or two birds facing each other in close proximity, covering themselves with feathers as if in a covert, secret kiss, can cause laughter.
You might even get a chuckle out of watching two bears cracking a joke. Or you can’t help but smile when you see a green praying mantis posing like a sexy photoshoot model on a leaf.
All of these scenes were captured in the creative images that made it to the finals of the 2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards.
Organizers say a heart-warming shortlist of 47 images and 9 videos was chosen from over 10,000 entries from 112 countries. This is the most entries in the annual contest’s 11-year history.
This hilarious competition was created in 2015 with the aim of using humor to promote wildlife conservation.
“The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards began very quietly, somewhere in the vast plains of the Serengeti,” contest co-founder Tom Salam said in a statement. “What started as a small effort to raise awareness for wildlife conservation has grown into a much larger effort than we could have ever imagined.”
“This contest is now truly global, and after almost 10 years, we want to make it even bigger, more interesting and more far-reaching than ever before,” he added. “We use humor to make people empathize with wildlife, and that empathy changes behavior for the better.”
If you’d like to see all the hilarious and charming finalists and choose your favorite, voting for the STERNA People’s Choice Award is now open.
The final winners, determined by a panel of judges, will be announced at the awards night in London on 8 December. The finalists’ works will then be on display until December 13th.
Click through the gallery above to see a selection of shortlisted images.
