Lynx playing with its prey wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award | CNN

The image of an Iberian lynx playing with its prey has won the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award for 2026. Standing on its hind legs with one paw flung out, the lynx seems both playful and predatory, batting around an unfortunate rodent as a precursor to killing and eating it. More than 85,000 people voted in the annual competition organized by London’s Natural History Museum, choosing between 24 shortlisted photos. That shortlist was selected from 60,636 total entries, and is separate to the overall competition, whose winner was announced in October. The winning shot in the People’s Choice competition was taken by Austrian photographer Josef Stefan, who captured the moment after spending three days camouflaged in a hide at Torre de Juan Abad in central Spain. During that period, the lynx made “brief appearances from time to time,” Stefan told CNN. “On the second day, this special moment came completely unexpectedly, he suddenly appeared with a freshly caught rat in his mouth, lay down near me, and remained there attentively for a while.” Shortly afterward, the lynx began to play with his prey. “He repeatedly tossed the rat into the