Badger Admiring Graffiti of Itself Wins Prestigious UK Wildlife Photography Competition

A photo of a badger admiring Banksy-style graffiti with his image on it has won an award at the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year photo contest in the UK. This was reported by the Natural History Museum of London and the BBC.

The author of the photo, British photographer Ian Wood, won the People's Choice Award.

Ian has been photographing badgers for two years, but his most successful photo was taken in 2024 near the road in St Leonards-on-Sea in England.

Back then, badgers came to eat the scraps left for foxes, and the photographer had an interesting idea.

‘I thought it would be fun to paint some graffiti there and see if a badger would walk under it,’ said the photographer.

Ian set up a small hiding place on the edge of the road, waiting for the right moment to film the animal. And the badger was interested in the image of his ‘relative’.

Wood said that with his work, he aims to draw attention to the badger cull, which he considers a ‘national disgrace’.

In some parts of Britain, badgers are still shot under licence, as controlling the number of these mammals is supposed to prevent the spread of tuberculosis in cattle.

However, conservationists criticise this outdated practice and emphasise that the really effective ways to prevent TB are cattle vaccination and milk pasteurisation.

‘I live in the Dorset countryside and I'm involved in rewilding to improve the habitat for a huge number of wildlife. The ongoing cull of badgers has reduced their numbers and if left unchecked, we may only see badgers in urban areas in a few parts of England.

I hope this photo raises awareness of the devastating impact of badger culling and helps to bring about change,’ said Ian.

This year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition saw 25 photographs compete for the People's Choice Award.