2026 Empathy Photo Competition – ACE for Wildlife Network

2026 Empathy Photo Contest

Calling all zoos, aquariums, and conservation organizations across the Advancing Conservation through Empathy for Wildlife (ACE for WildlifeⓇ) Network! We’re excited to launch our third annual Photo Contest, where you can share what empathy in action looks like at your organization. This contest is an opportunity to showcase your unique perspective on empathy between animals, wildlife, and people, and how it plays a role in conservation.

How It Works: Participants in the Network can submit photos of animals or plants to this contest from July 1st to September 15th, 2026. These photos must be associated with your organization, and taken by the contestant within the 2026 calendar year. Participants can also choose to submit photos to up to three different categories. Submissions will also be further divided by taxa groups about which you can learn more below.

Competition Categories

Portraits

Photos in this category should have the following qualities:

The animal or plant is the main subject
Subject should be front-facing, or side facing
Reminder: The animal doesn’t need to have a face to be included in this category!

Behavior and personality

Photos in this category should include any of the following features:

The animal’s personality or story is conveyed (you may add a caption in the submission for context)
The image should showcase the subject’s facial or body expression
A unique behavior is captured

Storytelling

Photos in this category can do any of the following:

Depict a visible bond between animals, people, and plants. This could be through eye contact, parallel body language, or other cues of connection
Capture moments of empathy or care: Highlight scenes where care is being shown to an animal (e.g., medical treatment, enrichment, or comfort), especially if it reflects a shared experience someone could relate to
Include themes of diversity, equity, accessibility, or inclusion (DEAI) – Photos that celebrate inclusive experiences, such as guests of all abilities engaging with exhibits, multilingual signage helping someone connect.

Examples

Portraits

“Sierra, a stunning female gray wolf, once roamed the Hollywood hills after escaping from her previous home. After being captured from the bustling suburbs nine years ago, she came to Wolf Haven to live in a large natural enclosure to enjoy the rest of her life with her wolf companion in sanctuary. She can be seen watching her surroundings from behind the trees or upon her tall hill.” -Gelane Clements, Wolf Haven International

Behavior and Personality

“The elephant nose investigates with its specialized electric organ’s flexible, jaw-mounted schnauzenorgan toward their ever-patient tank mate, the African Bushfish, carefully probing for any nearby morsels of food.” -Eric Carlson, Georgia Aquarium

Storytelling

“A juvenile Caribbean cave cockroach reaches out a claw to climb onto the hand of one of their handlers. As an ambassador species for the zoo, these cockroaches help to bridge the empathy gap for arthropods as we have the opportunity to show them in a new light to guests, highlighting how incredible and misunderstood they really are. I think this photo gives the opportunity to admire the beauty of these creatures that’s normally overlooked.” -Allison Menell, Oakland Zoo

Rules and Regulations

Your photos will be reviewed based on the following criteria:

How well does this photo showcase empathy
How well does this meet the criteria in each category
Quality and impression of the photo/ composition

Submission Limits:

Participants are permitted to submit up to two photos for each of the three categories. These two photos must represent different taxa groups. You may not submit two of the same taxa groups to a photo category. This ensures the diversification of photos and eligible winners.

Taxa groups
Photos submitted to each category are divided into taxa groups. These include:

Reptiles and amphibians
Terrestrial invertebrates
Mammals (terrestrial and marine)
Birds
Marine invertebrates and fish
Flora (natural plants and ecosystems at your organization)

This means that each participant can include up to six photos total.

Examples:

Allowable submission: Participant submits a photo of a mammal and reptile to the portrait category. They also submit a photo of an insect to the storytelling category.

Unallowable submission: Participant submits two mammal photos to the portrait category. (Reminder, you can only submit up to two different taxa to any given category).

Photo Guidelines and FAQs

Photo dimensions should roughly the following sizes:

Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels (1:1 aspect ratio)

Landscape: 1920 x 1080 px pixels (16:9 aspect ratio)

Portrait: 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16 aspect ratio)

Format: JPEG or PNG

Submission Details:

Taken in 2026 at your organization, and not submitted during any of the previous photo competitions. This year, we are allowing photos to be taken at ex-situ conservation sites if they were taken directly by you during 2026. This could include photos from animals or landscapes at conservation partner sites, or images captured during head-start programs.
No AI-generated images or heavily altered photos.
Your submission must include your name, organization, and email. You must also agree to our competition rules and regulations which can be found here.
Your photos must include a short caption, and a description of your photo. Please include animal names and sex when known. You must also include a short story or description (around 2-5 sentences) about your submission. These captions and stories will be used to showcase your photos in a gallery after the competition. Please keep descriptions from 2-5 sentences, otherwise they may be subject to edits to shorten the content.
Anyone who is in the ACE for Wildlife Network is eligible to submit photos. If you are not yet in our Network, you can join here for free.
You do NOT need to be a professional photographer to participate!

Submissions and Prizes

There will be one winning taxa for each of the three categories
There will be one overall winner across all taxa for each for each of the three categories
All submitted photos will be showcased on our website in a gallery
All winning photos may be:
Displayed on the ACE for Wildlife Network website, a newsletter article and future Network publications, and
Showcased at the 2027 ACE for Wildlife Network Summit
Winners will receive a small prize