European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Winners Seize Nature’s Tragic Magnificence

The German Society for Nature Photography (GDT) has introduced the winners of its annual European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitors, one of many world’s most prestigious nature pictures competitions. This 12 months’s successful pictures are jaw-dropping, and in some instances, heartbreaking. Nature may be as brutal as it’s lovely.

Alongside class winners, featured beneath, and the winners of the Fritz Pölking Prize and Rewilding Europe Award introduced earlier this fall, the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitors options an general winner. Revealed at an award ceremony immediately, the grand prize winner this 12 months is 20-year-old self-taught German photographer Luca Lorenz. The younger, passionate photographer took high honors for the exceptional black-and-white photograph beneath, Silent Despair.

The emotional affect of this picture goes far past this single body, which exhibits a doomed mouse clutched within the talons of a male Eurasian pygmy owl (Glaucidium passerinum). The male owl right here was holding onto the mouse to feed his owlets, which he had been struggling to take care of after his mate vanished, “probably taken by a tawny owl or goshawk,” as Lorenz explains.

However, the owlets the mouse was for had left their hole for the primary time the prior night time, and finally by no means returned, most definitely having fallen sufferer to a predator like their mom. The father owl, now totally alone, referred to as unendingly for the chicks so he might feed them, however they by no means responded.

“It was a heart-wrenching scene,” Lorenz writes.

“During our long journey through light, color, drama and action, a quiet, almost restrained image caught our attention. Suddenly we found ourselves transported out of the chaos of the world directly into a resin-scented spruce forest,” explains jury member Bruno D’Amicis. “The photographer grants us insight into the hidden life of a silent, inconspicuous creature — an animal that reveals itself only to those who bring patience and respect. It is a timeless story of life and death, told without brutality or blood, without winners or losers, without moral judgment. A nuanced, gentle reminder that there is no evil in nature.”

Category Winners

Alongside Lorenz’s high honors, the competitors awards photographers throughout eight main classes and two youth ones. The class winners and runners-up for all main classes are featured beneath, alongside the 2 youth winners within the “14 Years and Under” and “15 to 17 Years” classes.

Birds

Mammals

Other Animals

Plants and Fungi

Landscapes

Underwater World

Men and Nature

Nature’s Studio

Young Photographers — 14 Years Old and Younger

Young Photographers — 15 to 17 Years Old

The remainder of the award-winning pictures, together with third-place and honorable point out photographs in each class, can be found to view on the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 website.

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Image credit: German Society for Nature Photography (GDT). Individual photographers are credited within the picture captions.