A badger in Ånderdalen National Park, Senja.

From May 30 to June 6, 2025, 16 teenagers from La Rochelle, France, traveled by train and bus to Norway to support Ånderdalen National Park's conservation efforts, mapping biodiversity and restoring nature. Here, they found footprints of what we think belong to a European badger, a species that had never been documented on Senja, and rarely observed in Northern Norway.

Photo took in Ånderdalen National Park on June 4, 2025.

Badger footprints, by Sigrid Østrem Skoglund, Norsk institutt for naturforskning (in Artsdatabanken.no)

The big suprise!

Based on Artsdatabanken, there are currently two documented observations of badgers in the northern part of Norway, on July 14, 2003 in Narvik, and on June 6, 2023 in Krakenes, near Storslett. In inaturalist.org, Kjellmsarre reports that in 2021 "a badger was filmed even further north in Kautokeino municipality Finnmark county".

We photographed these footprints in Ånderdalen National Park, on the hiking trail south of Åndervatnet on June 4. Since then, we have shared the images with experts both in Norway and abroad. Because sightings of badgers this far north are unusual, we wanted to ensure our interpretation was confirmed. Not only is Senja well beyond the species’ main range, it is also an island, making it even more remarkable for a badger to appear there. All of the experts who examined the photos agreed: the footprints belong to a badger.

A badger farther south in Norway (photo: Norsk institutt for naturforskning, in Artsdatabanken.no)

In Norway, the badger is found in much of the country. Its actual range is considered to be south of Namdalen in Trøndelag, but some individuals have been observed right up in Finnmark. It is very rare to encounter a badger north of Namdalen, however (Rovdyrsenter, 2025).

Submissions in Artsdatabanken.no for "badger" in Norway, and our submission in red.

Volunteering in Ånderdalen National Park

The 12 pupils were in Ånderdalen to map biodiversity, and to help the National Park's manager repair hiking trails and restore peat bogs damaged by trampling.

For the mapping part, we focused on birds, as it was still a bit early in the season for plants and insects. But we always kept an eye on snow and mud, looking for animal tracks.

Resource constraints often leave protected areas with incomplete knowledge of their biodiversity. a year before, in June 2024, other volunteers had mapped 1 species of bird, 2 species of dragonflies and 1 species of bumblebees that had not previoulsy been documented in the Ånderdalen National Park.

Some of the pupils from La Rochelle, France, in Ånderdalen National Park in May-June 2024.

In July and August 2025, another group of 16 volunteers contributed to biodiversity mapping and nature restoration. The project was called A Helping Hand to Ånderdalen. It offered visitors the chance to experience Ånderdalen in a meaningful way, while also giving the National Park Board valuable support.

Rissa Citizen Science and the Ånderdalen National Park Board are now preparing the 2026 edition of A Helping Hand to Ånderdalen, with the ambition of strengthening local involvement even further. Now we know: badgers can potentially be found on Senja!

Young volunteers from La Rochelle, France, entering Ånderdalen National Park in May 2024.

---

In 2025, these initiatives have received financial support from Troms Fylkeskommune, Miljødirektoratet and It's Great Out There Coalition.