A younger Iberian lynx caught mid play has received the Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award 2026.
The putting picture, titled Flying Rodent, was taken by Austrian photographer Josef Stefan throughout a two-week keep in Torre de Juan Abad, in Spain’s Ciudad Real province.
He had spent a number of days in a cover when the younger lynx immediately appeared with its prey and commenced repeatedly throwing it into the air and catching it once more.
For practically 20 minutes, the lynx remained absorbed within the behaviour, at occasions standing on its “hind legs with its gaze fixed on the rodent”, he mentioned. “To me, it looked as if the rodent could fly.”
The second ended when the animal misplaced curiosity, carrying its prey behind a bush to eat it.
The Iberian lynx is likely one of the world’s rarest wildcats and was getting ready to extinction within the early 2000s, with fewer than 100 people remaining.
Thanks to long-term conservation and reintroduction efforts, the inhabitants has recovered to greater than 2,000, although it nonetheless stays in danger as a susceptible species underneath International Union for Conservation of Nature classification.
The different 24 nominated photographs for this yr’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award, which you’ll see under, acquired a record-breaking 85,917 votes from wildlife images and nature followers worldwide.
In addition to the profitable picture, 4 different finalists had been extremely recommended.
All 5 photographs will likely be displayed on-line and at London’s Natural History Museum until the exhibition, external closes on Sunday 12 July 2026.
