Unforgettable Behaviour

28 September – 31 December 2024

The American Museum & Gardens was the first museum in the UK to host Unforgettable Behaviour, an exhibition which celebrates exciting animal behaviour photography from the Natural History Museum’s world-renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

Unforgettable Behaviour showcased 39 powerful photographs from previous Wildlife Photographer of the Year collections, displaying some of the most incredible animal behaviour moments ever captured on camera.

The exhibition featured soundscapes, expert insights and spectacular species, showing the breathtaking diversity of the natural world.

Included for families

Unforgettable Behaviour had a range of creative family activities and invitations to play, including:

• Dress-up and jump inside a hide in the middle of the exhibition to look at the wildlife through binoculars

• Dig for animal scat and footprints in our fun dig pits, and identify what you discover

• Create your own animal mask and take some selfies

• Check how tall you are with our animal height chart

• Read some animal books

• Play with the funky puzzles

About the photography in Unforgettable Behaviour

The exhibition included the works of several American photographers, with a total of 17 countries represented, and 35 award-winning photographers. US photographer Karine Aigner’s winning photograph for Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022 – the remarkable shot of a buzzing ball of cactus bees spinning over the hot sand in Texas – was also on display. 

The photos showed an extraordinary range of surprising, and often deeply moving, acts by animals. They were chosen to allow visitors to connect with animals they might never otherwise see and to inspire everyone to care about the world around us.

This global show was previously hosted by The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, USA.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year, established in 1965, is a globally renowned photography competition that highlights exceptional talent worldwide. With entries from over 90 countries, images are chosen for their creativity, originality and technical excellence by international experts.

Exhibition sponsor

With