The Beaver’s Journey

People often take things for granted in nature, believing that something has always existed, and that it will be around forever. But that’s not always the case. We know that many animal species around the world have become extinct due to hunting and ecosystem change.

Beavers are such a common Scandinavian animal that we barely think about them. Everyone knows what it looks like, with wet fur and a thick tail. We know to find it in its habitat, a hut made of twigs and sticks. It's always been here, hasn't it?

In fact, by the end of the 19th century, beavers had disappeared from almost all of Scandinavia. Some people began to think that the beaver should be part of Scandinavian nature again, so they organised several projects to release beavers in places where it no longer existed.

This is the story about how a small town in Norway contributed to the return of the European beaver in Scandinavia and beyond.