The world's mysterious mangrove forests captured in 13 striking images

Eerie trees, prowling tigers and rare dolphin hunting behaviours have been featured at the 2026 Mangrove Photography Awards.

Found where tropical plants meet saltwater, mangrove forests hang in the balance between land and sea. These eerie ecosystems are home to some of the world's most fascinating wildlife. For some rare species, mangroves provide respite and protection. For others, they are a hunting ground – including this this juvenile royal Bengal tiger in India (pictured above), in the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans.

These images from the 2026 Mangrove Photography Awards capture the extraordinary beauty and fragility of the world's mangrove forests. Here you can explore 13 of the competition's most striking entries, from Florida to Indonesia.

Also pictured in the Indian Sundarbans are these two colourful mudskippers, who walk, jump and breathe on land – skirting the transition zone between land and sea, much like mangroves do. The fish have their mouths agape and fins raised in a vivid territorial display. 

The bottlenose dolphins of Florida Bay, US, are resourceful animals. The mangrove-lined coast provides them with their prey, including mullet. They trap the fish in a ring of mud they stir up from below, using the silty water like a net. This hunting strategy is almost unique to the dolphins of Florida Bay, and rarely captured on camera.

March of the flamingos

Another shot from Florida Bay took the top prize in the birds category. It features American flamingos closely observing a lemon shark.

Mangroves provide a complex underwater habitat, as this shot of a young green turtle swimming among a web of roots shows. When water levels rise with the tide, this area becomes a flourishing ecosystem and offers shelter from predators, including tiger sharks.

Mangrove trees are found along coasts and estuaries of more than 100 countries in the tropics and subtropics. In the Bahamas, this rare reddish egret stands out among the greenery.

The overall winner of the competition was this eye-catching........

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