The winner of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2025 is Mark Meth-Cohn, an amateur photographer from the UK who entered a brilliant shot titled “High Five” of a young gorilla cavorting through a forest clearing:
1. OVERALL WINNER & ALEX WALKER’S SERIAN MAMMAL AWARD WINNER, Mark Meth Cohn, High Five
2. THINKTANK BIRD CATEGORY WINNER, Warren Price, Headlock
3. FISH AND OTHER AQUATIC SPECIES CATEGORY WINNER, Jenny Stock, Smiley
4. NIKON JUNIOR PHOTOGRAPHER & REPTILE, AMPHIBIAN AND INSECT CATEGORY WINNER, Grayson Bell, Baptism of the unwilling convert
5. NIKON YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER WINNER, Paula Rustemeier, Hit The Dance Floor
7. AMAZING INTERNET PORTFOLIO CATEGORY WINNER, Maggie Hoffman, Digging For Gold
8. AMAZING INTERNET PORTFOLIO CATEGORY WINNER, Maggie Hoffman, Digging For Gold
9. AMAZING INTERNET PORTFOLIO CATEGORY WINNER, Maggie Hoffman, Digging For Gold
10. AMAZING INTERNET PORTFOLIO CATEGORY WINNER, Maggie Hoffman, Digging For Gold
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Alison Tuck, Now which direction is my nest
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Annette Kirby, Go Away
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Bret Saalwaechter, I Just Can’t Wait To Be King
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Christy Grinton, Bad Hair Day
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Erkko Badermann, Landing gears down
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Kalin Botev, Monkey Circus
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Liliana Luca Fonzies
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Mark Meth-Cohn, Aaaaaww Mum
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Meline Ellwanger, The Choir
HIGHLY COMMENDED WINNER, Valtteri Mulkahainen, Smile you’re being photographed
NIKON COMEDY WILDLIFE AWARDS 2025 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
London, United Kingdom, 9th December 2025: We’re delighted to announce this year’s winner of the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards. Mark Meth-Cohn, a keen amateur wildlife photographer from the UK – and a finalist in last year’s awards – took home the top prize for his hilarious image, ‘High Five’.
“High Five” is a perfectly timed capture of a gorilla dancing through a forest clearing, taken in Rwanda earlier this year. The comical photograph stood out among a record-breaking 10,000 entries from 109 countries – the highest number in the Awards’ illustrious eleven-year history. From this extraordinary collection, 44 of the very best entries, including videos, were shortlisted for the judging panel to select their favourites. The competition was as fierce as ever; however, Mark’s photograph emerged as a clear favourite among the judges – with the shot also claiming the Mammals Category Award.
Mark Meth-Cohn says: “We spent four unforgettable days trekking through the misty Virunga Mountains in search of the gorilla families that call them home. On this particular day, we came across a large family group known as the Amahoro family, they were gathered in a forest clearing where the adults were calmly foraging while the youngsters were enthusiastically playing. One young male was especially keen to show off his acrobatic flair: pirouetting, tumbling, and high kicking. Watching his performance was pure joy, and I’m thrilled to have captured his playful spirit in this image.”
Mark, a finalist in last year’s Awards, says one of his lifelong photographic ambitions is to capture big cats in the big plains of Africa. How wonderfully fitting then, that as over-all competition winner, Mark wins a fabulous safari in the Masai Mara, Kenya, thanks to Alex Walker’s Serian, where big cats and big skies abound. He also wins a unique handmade trophy from the Wonder Workshop in Tanzania and a fantastic photography bag from the fabulous ThinkTANK.
Stefan Maier, Senior General Manager of Marketing at Nikon Europe, says: “We are so thrilled to celebrate the incredible talent and creativity showcased in this year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards. All of our category winners use joy, skills and imagination to capture the natural world, and Mark’s winning image perfectly represents the playful spirit of wildlife. At Nikon, we are incredibly proud to support these visual storytellers and provide them with the tools to share their unique perspectives, inspiring audiences everywhere to connect with and care for our planet’s remarkable wildlife.”
Commenting on the moment he found out he had won the top prize, Mark said “Doing well in any competition shows that the images you are producing are working. The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards are one of the major competitions of the year, easy to enter and fun but with a seriously committed underlying ethos and, after reaching the finals last year, I’m absolutely delighted to have gone one step further and win the competition this year.”
Other Category Winners included: Grayson Bell from USA, who won Nikon Junior Photographer Award (16 yrs and under) and the Reptile, Amphibian and Insect Category with his image “Baptism of an unwilling convert” a striking close-up of two frogs wrestling in the water. He receives a Z50II camera and the NIKKOR Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR zoom lens from Nikon; Paula Rustemeier, from Germany who receives a Z6III and 24-120mm kit from Nikon for winning the Nikon Young Category (25 yrs and under) with her playful foxes called “Hit the dance floor;” Tatjana Epp, also from Germany, won the Nikon Video Category with a brilliant clip of a surfing heron and receives a ZR and 24-70mm f/4 S from competition headline partners Nikon.
Warren Price won the ThinkTANK Bird Award in the highly popular category for his perfectly timed image “Headlock”; Jenny Stock topped the Fish and other Aquatic Animals Category with her photo “Smiley” and Maggie Hoffman wins the Portfolio Category with her collection of 4 images aptly titled “Digging for Gold” featuring an industrious chimpanzee picking his nose.
In addition to the Category Winners, there were 10 entries that were recognised as Highly Commended Winners by the following entrants: Valtteri Mulkahainen, Meline Ellwanger, Erkko Badermann, Kalin Botev, Christy Grinton, Bret Saalwaechter, Lilian Luca, Alison Tuck, Annette Kirby and Mark Meth-Cohn.
All images and credits/titles are in the folder.
The winners were announced on Tuesday 9th December at an Awards Night in London, followed by a week-long exhibition from 10th -14th December at the Gallery@Oxo, showcasing all the 2025 Award Finalists, thanks to the support of our awesome competition partners at Nikon. This is an amazing chance to see all the Finalists up close – for free – and experience the wonders of wildlife by some unbelievably talented photographers.
This year, in collaboration with our valued partners – paper sponsor, Hahnemühle, and printing sponsor, Metro Imaging – we’re proud to share that the entire Nikon Comedy Wildlife Exhibition has been curated with sustainability at its heart. All the stunning images you see on display at the exhibition have been printed by Metro on Hahnemühle’s Bamboo paper – the world’s first inkjet paper made from 90% bamboo fibres and 10% cotton, offering a fast growing, environmentally friendly alternative. By choosing materials that minimise environmental impact, we are ensuring that the exhibition’s strong conservation message is reflected not only in the imagery but also in every aspect of its presentation. We are delighted to champion both creativity and sustainability, setting a new standard for eco-conscious exhibitions.
We are pleased to announce that voting is open from 10th December for the STERNA People’s Choice Award, where the public to get to choose their favourite Finalists from 2025. The public can cast their vote at www.comedywildlifephoto.com until March 1st 2026 and the Winner of this Award will be announced on March 14th. For information on our other Comedy Wildlife exhibitions, or anything else about the competition and winners, please visit www.comedywildlifephoto.com or end us an email at [email protected]
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