The Associated Press's top nature images of 2025 highlight fragility and resilience across species and habitats, from an albino turtle hatchling to a polar bear near an abandoned Russian research station. The gallery juxtaposes intimate moments — hummingbirds, ladybugs, cicadas — with harsher scenes such as a carnivorous plant trapping an insect and vultures over a carcass in India. Altogether, the collection presents a borderless natural world where endings and renewal coexist.
AP's Most Striking Nature Photos of 2025: Fragility, Power and Renewal
A newborn chick looks out of the feathers of its mother at a farm in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, July 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The Associated Press's most memorable nature photographs of 2025 capture moments of delicate beauty, surprising resilience and the cycle of life across the globe. From an albino turtle hatchling huddled among its peers to a polar bear resting beside an abandoned research station, each image tells a quiet story of survival and wonder.
Photographers found unexpected scenes everywhere: a raccoon nibbling peanuts on a boardwalk in Panama City; flocks of sheep being herded through the streets of central Madrid; and a hummingbird poised midair as it prepares to sip from a blossom. Close-up shots turn tiny details into spectacle — a pollen-speckled ladybug exploring a dandelion and the translucent wings of a cicada catching the light.
Other frames are more dramatic: a humpback whale explodes through the ocean surface in a splash of spray, while a carnivorous plant glistens around an insect caught within its trap. Predatory drama unfolds in the skies and on the ground as vultures wheel over an unseen carcass in India and eagles clash midflight while hunting.
Together the photographs suggest a world that carries on beyond human borders — fragile yet tenacious, full of endings and new beginnings. In one tender final image, a baby bird peeks from among its parents’ feathers, a quiet reminder that life renews itself even in harsh landscapes.
Photo editing by Courtney Dittmar and Anne-Marie Belgrave / The Associated Press
A polar bear is seen in front of an abandoned research station on Koluchin Island, off Chukotka, Russia, in the country's Far East, Sept. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Vadim Makhorov, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A young wild horse stands by its mother in a meadow near the city of Duelmen, Germany, where the herd lives in almost unmanaged feral conditions, April 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A hummingbird drinks from a flower in a garden on the outfield lawn before a spring training baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Athletics, Feb. 24, 2025, in Surprise, Ariz. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
An adult periodical cicada, in the process of shedding its nymphal skin, is seen on May 20, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Storks fly over fields in Buettelborn near Frankfurt, Germany, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A raccoon eats peanuts on the boardwalk in Panama City, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A bee collects pollen from a blue salvia, part of the blue, green, and white flower color scheme at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, ahead of the Wimbledon Championships in London, June 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The veins of an adult periodical cicada's translucent wings are illuminated shortly after shedding its nymphal skin after a heavy rain, May 16, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A grey squirrel jumps amongst autumn leaves in a London park, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A female African elephant named Pupy stands in her enclosure at the Ecoparque in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 25, 2025, as she is trained for her relocation to a sanctuary in Brazil. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Mute swans float on the River Thames, Oct. 10, 2025, in Windsor, England. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A ladybug sits on a dandelion flower at a park in Tallinn, Estonia, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A couple of White-tailed eagles fight while hunting at the Bosfor Vostochny channel in Vladivostok, Russia, Feb. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Anton Balashov, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A golden snub-nosed monkey is seen in Shennongjia National Park in central China's Hubei province, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Migrating cranes flock at sunrise in Hula Lake conservation area, north of the Sea of Galilee, northern Israel, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A humpback whale breaches off the coast of Port Stephens north of Sydney, Australia, June 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Baker, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Sandhill cranes are seen at the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Jan. 13, 2025, in Decatur, Ala. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A frog swims in a pond behind the Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, May 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
An albino turtle hatchling sits among other Arrau turtles (podocnemis expansa) ahead of their release at the Abufari Biological Reserve, in Tapaua, Amazonas state, Brazil, Nov. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Edmar Barros, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Vultures fly over the decomposed body of an animal, unseen, in Jammu, India, May 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Channi Anand, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A Monitor Lizard rests on a tree inside the Kaziranga National Park in Kaziranga, India, March 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A herd of sheep is guided through central Madrid, Spain, as shepherds lead them through the streets in defense of ancient grazing and migration rights, Oct. 19, 2025, in Madrid, Spain. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A stork couple is backdropped by the rising sun after a night of minus seven degrees Celsius (19.4 Fahrenheit) weather, on a field in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Brown marmorated stink bugs sit on a dandelion flower at a park in Tallinn, Estonia, May 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A Drosera capensis plant traps an insect at a carnivorous plant exhibit at the Botanical Garden in Bogota, Colombia, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A peacock alights next to a pickup truck at Mack's Fish Camp, a family-owned airboat tour business and campground on the Eastern edge of the Everglades, May 28, 2025, near Miramar, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Butterflies gather around flowers along the Riverwalk, July 18, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
A stag is silhouetted as it walks through a forest in the Taunus region near Frankfurt, Germany, Oct. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
