At night in Olsztyn, Poland, beavers gather beside a new apartment development, with roads and railway lines crossing the territory they have used for years. Polish photographer Jan Wieczorek captured that meeting of city and wild habitat in “Urban Beavers,” the winning image of the 2026 Rewilding Europe Award.
The award is a special category in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, organised by the German Society for Nature Photography in partnership with Rewilding Europe. It honours images of nature returning across Europe and the ways people and wildlife can share landscapes. Wieczorek’s photograph stands out because its subjects are not far from human life: the beavers live along a river running through Olsztyn, while construction continues nearby.
Wieczorek has watched this beaver population for around 15 years. He framed the picture to show the animals’ wetland habitat alongside the new housing development. The beavers have continued to thrive with support from local residents and city authorities, despite the roads, railway lines and building work around them.
Their presence has also changed the landscape. The wetland created by the beavers supports a wealth of wildlife. Their dams have helped restore the local water balance and improve water quality. Those changes show how nature can contribute to healthier, more resilient places for people, even in a city.
“The story behind the photograph shows that nature doesn’t always exist somewhere far away,” Wieczorek said. “It can thrive right next to our homes, beneath our bridges, and in the centres of our cities.” He said he wanted the image to show that people and wildlife can share space.
Judge Viktoria Pezzei said the photograph tells a whole story in a single frame, showing beavers in a wild habitat woven into an urban landscape. She said the winning and commended images help people understand the complex relationship between humans and wildlife. Fellow judge Jon A. Juarez, who won the award last year, said rewilding can take many forms: restoring a species, allowing natural processes to return, or giving nature time and space to recover. It can also mean learning to live alongside wildlife.
The runner-up image, “Managed revival” by Christoph Kaula, turns to another kind of recovery. It shows a young European hamster being handled by researchers in Germany, where captive breeding, genetic sampling, habitat management and monitoring are helping the species recover after a steep decline in intensively farmed areas. Farmers and volunteers also play a part.
Other commended images include Fabian Thorand’s photograph of two European bison resting near a Polish village close to Białowieża National Park. More than 10,000 European bison now roam freely across the continent, after the species once disappeared from the wild across Europe.
Together, the photographs show that wildlife recovery can happen in cities, on farms and at the edges of villages. In Olsztyn, the beavers’ wetland is a reminder that giving nature room does not always mean leaving the city behind; sometimes it means finding ways for wild life and human homes to exist side by side.