Rewilding Europe’s 2025 highlights included multiple releases of keystone species across the continent, from bison and vultures to trout, crayfish, hamsters and eagle owls.
Rewilding Europe’s 2025 highlights describe a year of wildlife comeback work across several landscapes. The organisation and its landscape teams supported releases of keystone species including European bison, cinereous vultures, Mediterranean trout, white-clawed crayfish, European hamsters and eagle owls.
These species are not interchangeable symbols. Each has a role in the places where it belongs. Bison shape vegetation. Vultures clean carcasses. Fish and crayfish are part of freshwater systems. Hamsters and eagle owls add different pieces to farmland and predator-prey relationships.
The value of a continent-wide rewilding report is that it shows recovery as a pattern, not an isolated miracle. A single release is encouraging; many releases in different landscapes suggest that knowledge, confidence and practical capacity are growing.
Wildlife comeback still depends on careful planning, local acceptance and long-term monitoring. But each successful release makes the next one easier to imagine and better informed.
Source: Rewilding Europe