20 Winners of European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026

Oct 23, 2026

A triptych showing a cluster of glowing fungi beneath roosting bats, a marine iguana underwater, and a wild cat at night.

Hungarian photographer Imre Potyó is the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026. The competition, organized by the German Society for Nature Photography (GDT), celebrates the best European nature photography each year, and Potyó’s striking photo beat over 26,000 others for the grand prize.

Potyó took top honors in the 26th annual nature photography competition for his incredible photo of bioluminescent pin mold growing from bat guano, with dozens of bats hibernating in the background, dimly and safely illuminated by a flashlight.

Imre Potyó, a scientist, environmental expert, and photographer, is no stranger to photographing bats or to winning major photography competition prizes. The photographer has been photographing bats in protected, restricted-access mine tunnels in Hungary for 13 years. Potyó’s fantastic photos have earned him honors in Hungary’s Nature Photographer of the Year, the Grand Prix of Hungarian Nature Photography, Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the United Kingdom, and the HIPA contest.

A glowing, bioluminescent fungus with long, thin filaments sits on a dark cave floor beneath a colony of roosting bats. — Overall Winner, European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 — © Imre Potyó | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

“A key characteristic of the lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) is that, during hibernating it occasionally wakes and leaves its roost to hunt flying insects. In doing so, the bat leaves behind droppings that gradually accumulate into a continuous dark layer,” Potyó explains.

“In the beam of a torch, a whitish coating can be seen on the guano – a small pin mould thriving in this unusual habitat. Using a macro lens, I captured the mould in the foreground with the hibernating bats visible in the background. The photograph, a long exposure incorporating a focus shift, was taken during a controlled bat count and without disturbing the animals,” he continues.

“This image speaks to a larger truth about the natural world: much of life exists beyond our immediate awareness, in places we seldom visit and among organisms we rarely notice. Even within this single frame, bats, fungi and countless microorganisms form part of a web of relationships that quietly sustains life while remaining largely unseen,” adds Tom Gilks on behalf of the competition jury.

“Photography has a unique ability to make such connections visible, transforming what might otherwise remain obscure into something we can understand, appreciate and ultimately care about. At a time of unprecedented biodiversity loss, many of these worlds are disappearing before they have even been properly documented, let alone understood,” Gilks concludes.

Category Winners

Alongside Potyó’s overall victory, the competition awarded winners and runners-up across nine major categories, including two categories especially designed for young photographers. The category winners and second-place finishers are featured below, except for the youth categories, which show only the winners.

Highly Commended, Nature’s Studio — © Andrew Rouse | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

There are many fantastic Highly Commended photos as well, which can be viewed on the German Society of Nature Photography’s website.

Birds

Several cranes wade through shallow, marshy water surrounded by tall reeds in a black-and-white scene. — Winner — © Jan Wieczorek | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A small bird flies low over a rushing mountain stream flowing between dark, jagged rocks. — Runner-Up — © Janss Haugli | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Mammals

A tabby cat walks across a dark, rocky path at night, surrounded by glowing yellow streaks of fireflies under a starry sky. — Winner — © Lorenzo Shoubridge | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A small rodent dives headfirst into a burrow in a dark forest floor covered with pine needles and pinecones. — Runner-Up — © Imre Potyó | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Other Animals

A spider sits at the center of a web illuminated by a bright, curved arc of light against a dark, abstract background. — Winner — © Christian Morawitz | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A frog sits in dark, shallow water surrounded by submerged brown leaves and reflections of tree branches. — Runner-Up — © Imre Potyó | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Plants and Fungi

A small, still pool of water reflects the surrounding forest amidst vibrant autumn foliage and charred, fallen tree trunks. — Winner — © Fortunato Gatto | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A close-up of a dark purple flower petal covered in water droplets, with a vertical line of beads reflecting bright pink light. — Runner-Up — © Daniel Böttcher | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Landscapes

A field of small yellow wildflowers stretches toward a range of dark, rugged mountains under a deep orange and purple sky. — Winner — © Antje Kreienbrink | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A crescent moon hangs in a dark sky above a jagged mountain range featuring a prominent, snow-covered glacier. — Runner-Up — © Orsolya Haarberg | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Underwater World

Two jellyfish float in dark, murky water, surrounded by swirling clouds of sediment. — Winner — © Angel Fitor | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A marine iguana clings to a rocky, seaweed-covered underwater surface with its sharp claws. — Runner-Up — © Henley Spiers | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Humans and Nature

A sun bear sleeps inside the open, rusted metal compartment of a large industrial incinerator surrounded by scattered trash. — Winner — © Petr Bambousek | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Two skiers in winter gear adjust a tall safety net on a snowy slope while a grouse walks on the snow nearby. — Runner-Up — © Lukas Schaefer | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Nature’s Studio

A dark, moody, and abstract composition features a single bird silhouetted against a soft, glowing blue light amidst hazy shadows. — Winner — © Hermann Hirsch and Jan Leßmann | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A moth rests on a dark, textured surface covered in scattered, glowing blue shards of broken glass. — Runner-Up — © Florian Lottersberger | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Young Photographers up to 14 Years

Golden sunlight backlights a cluster of tall reeds, creating lens flares and a hazy, glowing atmosphere against a dark background. — Winner — © Marla Schwarze | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Photographers 15-17 Years

Silhouetted swans float on a dark, orange-lit body of water, with one swan clearly visible in the distance. — Winner — © Szymon Bartołd | European Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Rewilding Europe Award

Earlier this month, GDT unveiled the winner of this year’s Rewilding Europe Award, Polish photographer Jan Wieczorek. His photo is part of today’s celebration, so it’s well worth another look. It’s a wonderful nighttime portrait of city-dwelling beavers showing that people and wildlife can live in peace, even when wildlife is just outside their doorstep.

Three beavers interact near the edge of a dark, misty pond at night, with one standing on the bank and two in the water. — ‘Urban Beavers’ by Jan Wieczorek | Rewilding Europe Award

Fritz Pölking Prize

The annual Fritz Pölking Prize is awarded to special photo projects or portfolios. It honors legendary photographer and writer Fritz Pölking.

This year’s overall winner is Dutch photographer Michiel van Noppen. Van Noppen’s series, Tales of the Forest Keepers, highlights the symbiotic relationship between the Baird’s tapir and the very rare Jícaro Danto tree, which needs the tapir to survive.

This year, the Fritz Pölking Junior Prize went to young Norwegian photographer Tobias Gjerde for his project, The Magic of the Nordic Wilderness. Gjerde’s expertly crafted minimalist compositions capture the harsh and beautiful world of the Nordic wilderness in a unique way.

Image creditsEuropean Wildlife Photographer of the Year, German Society for Nature Photography. Individual photographers are credited in the image captions.

Affiliate Disclosure PetaPixel articles may include affiliate links; we may earn a commission if you buy through one.

Spotlight

Discussion