18 hilarious photos from the 2026 Comedy Wildlife Awards
Popular Science ·
From chuckling beavers to fat bears to sassy orangutans, this year's finalists bring the laughs. The post 18 hilarious photos from the 2026 Comedy Wildlife Awards appeared first on Popular Science .
Nature can be serious— bear infanticide , zombie spiders , rodent-hunting squirrels . But the animal kingdom still has a silly side.
The 2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards celebrate the amusing antics of animals. Since 2015, the contest has shared light-hearted wildlife images captured by photographers from around the world. This year, more than 10,000 images from 112 countries were submitted for consideration. After careful consideration (and likely quite a few laughs), the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards has unveiled its list of finalists.
The contest isn’t just for internet chuckles either; the organization behind the program is also focused on raising awareness around conservation issues.
“The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards started very gently, somewhere out on the vast plains of the Serengeti,” Tom Sullam, Competition Co-Founder said in a statement. “What began as a small effort to raise awareness of wildlife conservation has grown into something far bigger than we ever imagined. The competition is now truly global, and a decade or so on, we want to make it even bigger, funnier, and more far-reaching than ever. We use humour to get people to feel empathy towards wildlife, and it’s that empathy that creates behavioural change for the better.”
The Overall Winner, Category, and Highly Commended Winners will be announced on Tuesday, December 8. Winners will receive Nikon cameras and equipment and the overall winner will go on a once-in-a-lifetime safari.
The post 18 hilarious photos from the 2026 Comedy Wildlife Awards appeared first on Popular Science .