Gallery Trail: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026

A hand holds a clipboard in front of a gallery with a mosaic ceiling. The clipboard is holding a picture of several rhinoceroses.
Category
Gallery Activity
Duration
60 minutes
Audience
Educators, Students
Age
8-18
Grades
4-12
Subjects
Art & Culture, Canada, Canadian & World Studies, General, History, Indigenous, Language, Science, Science & Technology, Social Sciences & Humanities, Social Studies, The Arts

About

Gallery Trails are designed to be used with an onsite visit or with a virtual exhibition. These choice-focused, student-centric resources help structure and record your students’ learning in the exhibition or gallery. Activities address key themes of each exhibition or gallery while still allowing students the freedom to focus on and learn about objects or belongings that are of interest to them.

Gallery Trails can be done individually or in small groups, according to students’ needs and preferred learning styles. They can be done by a broad range of ages and grades, scaling in the responses rather than the questions. Each Gallery Trail also includes extensions to be done back in the classroom, to reinforce and lock in student learning.

They are available in multiple editable formats so that they can also be customized and remixed to meet the needs of your class.

Exhibition Info

Each year, the annual competition - organized by the Natural History Museum in London, UK - receives tens of thousands of image submissions from aspiring wildlife photographers of all ages. 

Following the photographer's eye through the camera's lens, we become witnesses to the vivid detail of our fragile world, gaining a better understanding of both the beauty around us and the responsibility we hold towards caring for our shared planet. The perfect pairing of astonishing wildlife with stunning photography makes each year's exhibition of new images unique and inspiring. 

Bring your class to this exhibition at ROM until February 28, 2027 as a self-guided visit, or with a Guided Lesson with an Indigenous Museum Educator.

 

Image on clipboard: Sanctuary Survivors. Image © Frederico Veronesi, Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026. 

Downloads

Download this activity as:

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Museum Guidelines

Walk. Do not run.

Use indoor voices.

Stay with your adult.

Don’t touch objects or belongings. Only touch objects that are clearly marked as safe to touch.

Don’t rush. Focus your time on the objects that interest you and do what you can in the time you have.

Make way for Museum Educators if they need a space for a lesson.

Please use pencils and not pens for the safety of the objects.

Ask questions and have fun!

Learning Goals

Understand basic principles of photography composition.

Gain a better understanding of the diversity of living things on Earth and their complex lives and behaviours through the lens of photography.

Examine conservation threats and challenges to living thigs, and how those living things are impacted by human activity.

Encounter Indigenous insights and connections to the subjects of key photographs through the recordings of four Indigenous Knowledge Carriers throughout the exhibition. 

Fast Facts

Ontario students are eligible to enter the ROM Wildlife Photo Contest to win a camera or a ROM family membership.

The Natural History Museum in London, UK has been organizing the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition in London, UK, since 1965.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year also includes a Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year category for students.

When the contest began in 1965, they received 361 entries. Now, they receive over 45,000 entries every year from photographers around the world.

Please Note

If remixing or modifying, please credit: "adapted from a resource by ROM."

Curriculum Connections

Related exhibitions

Exhibition

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026

Until February 2027
Monochromatic image, taken at ground level, of two rhinos in the foreground partially obscuring several more through a dusty background.

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#ROMwpyON Grand Prize Winner: Hiding © Yaron Eini
Program
ROM Wildlife Photo Contest
Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, ROM invites you to share your captivating images of the natural world for a chance to win some amazing prizes and have your photograph on display at the Museum. Open to all residents of Ontario, read on to find out about this year’s incredible prizes and how to enter. Contest generously supported by Henry’s and Sony.
#ROMwpyON Grand Prize Winner: Hiding © Yaron Eini
Program
ROM Wildlife Photo Contest
Whether you’re an amateur or professional photographer, ROM invites you to share your captivating images of the natural world for a chance to win some amazing prizes and have your photograph on display at the Museum. Open to all residents of Ontario, read on to find out about this year’s incredible prizes and how to enter. Contest generously supported by Henry’s and Sony.

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