The most wonderful time of the year has arrived, and no, we’re not disgustingly eager about Christmas. We’re actually talking about the shortlist for the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards 2026, proving once again that Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humour.
This year’s competition received more than 10,000 entries from 112 countries, the highest number in the award’s history, and the shortlist has now been narrowed down to 40 individual finalists. There are three entries in the under-16 category, four portfolio finalists and nine video finalists. The overall winner, category winners and Highly Commended entries won’t be revealed until an awards night in London on Tuesday December 8, but the finalists alone are packed with shots that will make you belly chuckle.
Among our favourites are Diego Perez’s ‘Sexy Mantis’, a tiny green mantis photographed in Cusco, Peru, caught at just the right angle to make its hind legs disappear and its front legs look disarmingly human. You can practically hear it whispering, ‘paint me like one of your French girls.’
Cliff Fawcett’s ‘If I Can’t See You’ captures a young elephant in South Africa’s Addo National Park mid-blunder, slapping its own trunk across its eyes in a moment of pure toddler logic.
Over in the Philippines, Kyo Chen’s ‘A Very Pressured Spadefish’ catches a small fish swimming directly in front of a giant whale shark, wearing what can only be described as an expression of total dread.
Here are the rest of our favourites that had us in stitches, from a caiman with a 1950s quiff to a chameleon tiptoeing across hot sand like a tiny action hero.
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