18 stunning wildlife images from the Mangrove Photography Awards
Popular Science...
Mangrove trees thrive in environments that would kill most other plants. Found along the coastlines of the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australasia, these vital plants shelter vulnerable creatures, absorb excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and helps protect coastlines from erosion.
The Mangrove Photography Awards celebrate this nature powerhouse each year with captivating images that document their beauty and their struggle. This year’s overall prize went to photographer Gaurav Patil for his image “Tangled glow: When life meets the ruins” (seen below).
OVERALL WINNER
A ghost net glowing under ultraviolet light, tangled in a mangrove on the tide-swept shore of Nandgaon village, Maharashtra, south of Mumbai, has won this year’s Mangrove Photography Awards. Captured on a 13-second UV exposure, the image reveals a quieter conservation crisis: discarded fishing nets carried in by currents and trapped in mangroves, turning these vital coastal barriers into hidden garbage hotspots.
While ghost gear’s impact on open-water marine life is increasingly documented, its accumulation in mangrove ecosystems on India’s coast has received far less attention. Mangroves sit at the interface between land and sea, meaning they can end up receiving waste from both directions.
Credit: Gaurav Patil / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
“I came across this particular mangrove patch where discarded fishing nets were getting trapped during high tide. These nets, after getting discarded or lost from the fishing vessels, meet the oceanic currents which bring them to the coast. I have been watching ghost nets getting trapped in mangroves for the last several years, and I wanted to document it in an artistic manner to grab the attention of the viewers,” Patil said in a statement.
This year the competition saw 5,258 entries from 87 countries. Winners were selected across six categories. The full gallery can be viewed at the Mangrove Action Project.
Landscape, On the Ground – Winner
Under the Milky Way, a solitary mangrove stands in shallow tidal water, its reflection still in the low tide — a quiet pairing of ancient starlight with one of Earth’s most vital coastal ecosystems.
Credit: Ryuhei Suguri / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Portfolio Stories, RUNNER-UP
Baby blacktip sharks practice hunting in a mangrove nursery off Santa Cruz Island. They’ll move to open water as they grow, with females returning to the mangroves to give birth once mature.
Credit: Pelayo Salinas de León / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Portfolio Stories, RUNNER-UP
A green sea turtle rests in a shallow mangrove bay in Isabela as a curious juvenile snapper investigates the camera — mangroves serving as resting, breeding, and nursery grounds alike.
Credit: Pelayo Salinas de León / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Wildlife Mammals – Runner-up
A Silky anteater (Cyclopes didactylus) asleep on a red mangrove tree at the Caroni Bird Sanctuary, Caroni Swamp. Though the silky anteater is classified globally as “least concern” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, they still face significant risks in Trinidad due to habitat destruction, forest fires, and illegal hunting. Silky anteaters are the smallest species of anteater in the world.
Credit: Kerron Noel / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
In mangrove forests where warm-blooded prey is scarce, some mosquitoes have adapted to feed on cold-blooded mudskippers instead — captured here after the photographer set out to discover what was sustaining the forest’s large mosquito population.
Young Mangrove Photographer of the Year Winner
Credit: Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Portfolio Stories, RUNNER-UP
A squadron of golden rays glides through a shallow mangrove cove at Concha Perla, Isabela Island — one of Galápagos’s most accessible and popular wildlife spots.
Credit: Pelayo Salinas de León / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026 @PelayoSalinas
Young Photographer, Runner-up
This shore viper is a well-known resident of Pasir Ris Park due to her blue lip morphology. This morphology is truly unique and is currently one of only three known vipers with a similar morphology in the world. The second of the three vipers above is found in Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve, while the last is the late mother of the current ‘Blu 2′ of Pasir Ris Park. Since Sungei Buloh was inaccessible after 7 pm, I decided to try my luck at Pasir Ris Park and managed to finally photograph this beautiful species after three months of attempts. Snakes in Singapore are a heavily misunderstood species due to Singaporeans’ ignorance of the presence of snakes and the lack of danger is typically poses to the general public. I have heard of many instances of Singaporeans killing species of snakes that are completely harmless just because it might have glided into their homes, or because of a misunderstanding, for example, ‘Colourful snakes are venomous’. Although it is true in this case,. it does not pose a safety risk to anyone if they choose to keep a safe distance and admire its beauty from afar, rather than poke it and irritate it with a stick.
Credit: Marcus Kuan / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Wildlife, Other Species – Highly Commended
Two mudskippers face off on wet mud, mouths agape and fins raised in a territorial display, their blue spotted patterns catching the light. A vivid glimpse of the Sundarbans’ tidal flats, where these fish walk, jump, and breathe on land.
Credit: Ashok Behera / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026 FIHFFEAHGEJJGJJHKHGIHFIHFIJDIHFI
A group of Caribbean flamingos performs a collective courtship display at dawn in a Yucatán swamp – a positive sign that the ecosystem, and the mangrove forest behind it, is healthy.
Wildlife, Birds – Highly Commended
Credit: Miguel Diaz Perez / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026 @mikediazphoto
Threats, Runner-up
Two Mona monkeys, born in captivity, peer through the wire mesh of their enclosure at Lufasi Nature Park — a mangrove sanctuary in Lagos rehabilitating rescued wildlife. Their stares turn the moment around: for once, we’re the ones being studied.
Credit: Tosan Dudun / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Wildlife, Other Species – Highly Commended
An adult Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus) patrols the shoreline of a mangrove forest, where land and water converge to create one of Africa’s most productive and biodiverse ecosystems.
Standing along the edge of a mangrove channel, an adult Nile monitor (Varanus niloticus) basks beside a mangrove tree whose roots anchor the shoreline against the tides. As one of Africa’s largest lizards, the Nile monitor is a highly adaptable predator, capable of thriving in a wide range of wetland habitats. Within mangrove ecosystems, however, it occupies a particularly important ecological niche, linking aquatic and terrestrial food webs through its diverse diet and active foraging behavior.
Credit: Jesús Jiménez González / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Underwater, Winner
Grey snappers hunt through a school of baitfish beneath the mangrove canopy of Lac Bay, Bonaire — captured during a fish monitoring survey, as shafts of midday light revealed predator-prey interactions usually hidden in these submerged forests. A reminder that Bonaire’s celebrated reefs depend on the mangroves that shelter and feed them.
Credit: Ewan Tregarot / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Wildlife, Mammals – Highly Commended
A white-fronted lemur navigates the intricate root systems of Madagascar’s mangroves — endangered ecosystems now known to provide essential habitat for at least 23 lemur species, making them far more vital to the island’s biodiversity than once realised.
Credit: Raj Hassanaly / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Wildlife, Birds – Highly Commended
The photographer came across this Reddish Egret while paddling through the mangroves of Bimini. It was the first time he’d seen the rare species, despite the recent development pressures facing the island.
Credit: Dillon Roberts / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Underwater – Highly Commended
A snook charges through a school of baitfish sheltering in the mangroves of Lac Bay, Bonaire.
Credit: Crispin Middleton / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
Threats, Highly Commended
Mangroves stand resilient on the horizon — but beneath their canopy lies a sea of plastic and discarded waste, roots buried under the weight of what’s been thrown away. A portrait of neglect, and a warning: nature can endure much, but not indefinitely.
Credit: Michol Sanchez / Mangrove Photography Awards 2026
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