BACE

A wild beaver has been caught on film in Ottery St Mary near the River Otter in Devon (BBC News). Although a wild beaver has been spotted on the River Otter before, it is not known where this animal came from.

In March 2011, two beavers were released into a 2.8 ha enclosure in the headwaters of the River Tamar in Devon, England. The project is run by the Devon Wildlife Trust with the aim of studying how beavers affect the habitat, water quality and wildlife of their wetland environment. Progress on the project can be found on the Trust’s website and Beaver Blog. The good news this year is that the beavers have given birth to a kit indicating they have adapted well to their new home. The birth of the kit has been widely reported in the media (BBC News, BBC Radio 4, BBC The One Show).

A recent article in British Wildlife reviews the present position of beavers in Britain and, starting from a historical context, considers all the major issues in relation to the official time-limited release of beavers at Knapdale in Scotland, feral beavers on the River Tay in Scotland, and beavers in captive environments in England, Wales and Scotland. This authoritative account is written by Simon Jones (Project Manager for the Scottish Beaver Trial), Derek Gow (expert on beaver reintroductions), Adrian Lloyd Jones (Lead for the Welsh Beaver Project) and Róisin Campbell-Palmer (Field Operations Manager for the Scottish Beaver Trial and Conservation Manager for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland). See the Bibliography page for the full citation.

The New Scientist has recently reported on the work of Ellen Wohl from Colorado State University in Fort Collins that beaver dams ‘lock-up’ a considerable amount of carbon and thus provide a valuable service. The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.

A fisherman trying to capture a beaver to be photographed with it in Belarus was bitten several times on the hip and subsequently died. The number of beavers in Belarus is estimated to now be >80,000 animals leading to some human-animal conflict situations, even though they are rare. This story has been published widely in the media, for example, see BBC News, the Guardian, HNGN, and Epoch Times. Simon Jones, Manager of the Knapdale beaver trial, has pointed out in the New Scientist (also see Raw Story) that this behaviour is out of character for these normally shy creatures.

A report recently published by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) estimates that 150 beavers are now living wild on the River Tay in Scotland. The report, mainly based on surveys carried out in the summer of 2012, indicates there are 38 or 39 groups of beavers (0.14-0.15 groups or 0.55 to 0.56 individuals per kilometer of occupied waterway). These animals are thought to be descendants from captive collections of beavers in the counties of Perthshire and Angus. Apparently, at the time. only three groups of beavers had built dams, causing some localised problems resulting in some dams being removed. However, as reported by the BBC, local fishermen had no issues with the presence of beavers.  The report, which can be found on the SNH website, recommends carrying out mitigation studies that would enable the coexistence of people and beavers.  Monitoring over the next 2 to 3 years will be carried out by the Tayside Beaver Study Group. This story has also been reported in Wildlife Extra News and the Herald in Scotland – also see YouTube and the BBC Autumnwatch webpage.

In early August 2012, three young kits were filmed at Dubh Loch in Knapdale Forest, Scotland. Knapdale Forest is the site of the official Scottish beaver release trial that was set up in 2009. This is encouraging news for the trial which will continue until 2014.

Today the Welsh Beaver Project published a report entitled An investigation into the feasibility of reintroducing European beaver to Wales based on 5 years of study. The report, which makes the case for a managed pilot introduction, was supported by the Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, John Griffiths who said in a statement, “…the reintroduction of beavers to Wales could offer a range of prospective benefits for Wales…” . The next stage will be further consultation and an investigation into potential release sites.

Despite being the height of  summer, heavy rain in England and Wales seems never-ending and warnings of localised and more extensive flooding are all too frequent. This could be the shape of things to come, and brings sharply into the focus the suggested role of beavers in flood mitigation, water retention, water purification, sediment trapping and wetland creation, all of which are said to have economic as well as environmental benefits. The case for reintroducing beavers to South West England to test these ideas is put forward in recent articles in the Western Morning News and the Telegraph.

A beaver was found in a slurry pit on a farm near Roborough in Devon on 23rd April 2012. It is possible that its is one of three, named Igor, who escaped from a farm in Lifton in 2008 (two were recaptured at the time, but Igor remained at large), but there is no real way of saying for sure. The beaver was captured and taken to Dartmoor Zoo where he was cleaned up. For more on this story, see BBC News, Mail Online, The Telegraph, The Morning Star, and Pano News.