A Brilliant TED Talk About How Funny Wildlife Photos Can Lead to Empathy for Conservation Efforts

Photographer Tom Sullam, co-creator of the annual Comedy Wildlife Awards, gave a brilliant TED Talk at TEDNext 2025 about seeing the humor in animals through the context of human emotions. Sullam seamlessly shared several examples of this phenomenon, explaining that this type of visual anthropomorphism helps develop empathy for wildlife and the efforts to conserve them.

These images raise our spirits. They create a positive emotion. That positive emotion leads to empathy, and it’s empathy which leads to attitudinal and behavioral change. The pictures I’ve shown you today…are a reminder to us that it’s our job to be custodians of these tender moments. That we should accept coexistence rather than separation, complete separation from wildlife.

Sullam closed out with very honest statement about what animals might think of humans at this point in time.

And finally, that … diversity on the planet is a privilege that we should cherish. However, we may have to be honest with ourselves and accept that some species may already have had enough of us.

Some of the Animals Mentioned in Sullam’s Talk