Striking image of beavers in a Polish city wins 2026 Rewilding Europe award

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.

We here at Worth A Dam have seen our fair share of urban beaver photos and aren’t all that impressed but honestly its wonderful for Polish newspapers to have their own urban beaver photos.

They have certainly used ours often enough.