A striking image of beavers working in the heart of a Polish city has won this year’s Rewilding Europe award, a special category in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The category, in partnership with Rewilding Europe, highlights how nature can recover and the relationship that people have with it.
The image, taken by Polish photographer Jan Wieczorek, is titled Urban beavers and captures the creatures that have been living on a river that flows through the city of Olsztyn. Urban development around the beavers’ habitat has increased, yet they continue to thrive in the wetlands.
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Wieczorek has watched the animals for around 15 years. “The story behind the photograph shows that nature doesn’t always exist somewhere far away,” he explains.
“It can thrive right next to our homes, beneath our bridges, and in the centres of our cities. By framing the housing development alongside the wetland created by the beavers, I wanted to show that it is possible for humans and wildlife to share space.”
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Other acclaimed images show the efforts that conservationists are undertaking across Europe. Christoph Kaula’s Managed revival shows a European hamster being released into the wild, and Fabian Thorand’s Peaceful European bison shows two bison resting in a meadow near Białowieża National Park in Poland; a UNESCO World Heritage site.
One of Germany’s largest wilderness areas, Anklamer Stadtbruch, features in Silke Hüttche’s image The call of the eagles. Two white-tailed eagles perch on the trees in the site, which was rewetted after a storm surge in 1995. And in Lewis Jefferies’ image A new generation, a National Lobster Hatchery staff member releases juvenile European lobsters into a Cornish tidal pool in England.
“I really hope the image can help spark interest in marine wildlife and conservation and raise awareness of the incredible conservation work being done in Cornwall to save species and habitats,” says Jefferies.
The winners will be honoured as part of the official award ceremony of the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 competition, which is organised by the German Society for Nature Photography, on 23 October 2026.
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Runners up for the Rewilding Europe award
Top image: Urban beavers by Jan Wieczorek. Credit: GDT EWPY 2026, Rewilding Europe Award, Jan Wieczorek
