Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025: The untold story of the ‘ghost hyena’ picture that stunned the world

In the quiet, abandoned streets of Kolmanskop, a former diamond-mining ghost town in Namibia, a rare brown hyena roams under the cover of night. South African photographer Wim van den Heever captured this elusive creature in a haunting image titled Ghost Town Visitor, which has since won the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 award. The photograph also secured the Urban Wildlife category and is the result of a decade-long pursuit using camera trap technology. Van den Heever’s meticulous planning and patience allowed him to document the nocturnal hyena in an abandoned human space, revealing a world where wildlife quietly reclaims territory left behind by humans. Van den Heever’s photograph beat out over 60,000 submissions from 113 countries, cementing its status as a stan