Page 26 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #02

BRITAIN’S BEAVER AIGAS FIELD CENTRE,
INVERNESS-SHIRE
REINTRODUCTIONS STATUS: Licensed release (fenced)
INTRODUCED: 2006 POP: 2
Aigas has a popular education
Our map shows the various beaver reintroduction
centre, which created a fenced
trials now underway or proposed, as well as private
enclosure around its forested
projects and unofficial (illegal) releases. 8-acre loch (featured on
Autumnwatch) to demonstrate
how beavers modify habitat.
KNAPDALE FOREST, ARGYLL Visitors can view the beavers
STATUS: Licensed release (unfenced) from a purpose-built hide.
INTRODUCED: 2009 POP: at least 9
Twelve beavers from Norway were
introduced on Forestry Commission
land for the high-profile Scottish TAYSIDE, SCOTLAND
Beaver Trial. In October 2017, a new STATUS: Unlicensed release
licence was issued to release up to 28 INTRODUCED: 2001 POP: up to 250
more beavers (not included in above No one is quite sure where this population of
total) to boost genetic variation. beavers originated from, but it is thought that
they escaped from private collections. Between
2003 and 2015, they built 500m of canals, an
acre of freshwater ponds and 195m of dams.

COTSWOLD WATER PARK,
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
STATUS: Licensed release (fenced)
INTRODUCED: 2005 POP: 4
Six beavers were originally
FOREST OF DEAN, introduced to Flagham Fen Lake
GLOUCESTERSHIRE in this popular countryside park.
STATUS: Licensed release (fenced) They produced kits in their
INTRODUCED: Due 2018 POP: 4 very first year, since when their effects
The Forestry Commission will release on the local environment have been
two adults and two kits into an enclosed closely monitored.
area, in the first beaver trial funded by
the UK government. It’s hoped they will
help prevent major floods like the one in
the local village of Lydbrook in 2012. HAM FEN, KENT
STATUS: Licensed release (fenced)
INTRODUCED: 2001 POP: 7
This rare example of Kent
CARMARTHENSHIRE, WALES fenland near Sandwich is
STATUS: Licensed release (fenced) managed by Kent Wildlife Trust,
INTRODUCED: 2013 POP: 6 adults, plus young with no public access to protect
The Bevis Trust has a small captive beaver its beavers, which originally
population, with two bookable hides, while came from Norway. Guided
it waits for the outcome of its 2015 proposal evening events take place in
to release 10 pairs of beavers along the River spring and summer.
Cowyn and Nant Cennin in Carmarthenshire.

RIVER OTTER, DEVON
STATUS: Unlicensed release, since
given official status
WOODLAND VALLEY FARM, INTRODUCED: 2010 (or maybe as
CORNWALL early as 2007) pop: 27
STATUS: Licensed release (fenced) This population began breeding
INTRODUCED: 2017 POP: 2 in 2013. To prevent the beavers’

Last June a pair of beavers removal, a trial was set up in 2015
were released into five acres of by Devon Wildlife Trust, which also
private farmland upstream of has a separate fenced project.
Ladock village, near Truro. It is
hoped they will breed in 2018.
26 BBC Wildlife February 2018