New Beaver On The Block

Beaver match-makers hope for loch-side love

The Scottish Beaver Trial team has released a new male beaver to partner a lone female as part of the five-year trial reintroduction of beavers to Knapdale Forest in Mid-Argyll. The male, who was captured in Norway by colleagues at Telemark University College, brings the number of resident wild beavers in Scotland to 12 (including two recently born kits).



The Trial, which is a partnership project between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS), the Scottish Wildlife Trust and host partner Forestry Commission Scotland, aims to determine how beavers will prosper in Scottish habitats and to assess their effect on the current Scottish environment by monitoring them over the five-year trial period.



The two-year old male was released on Tuesday (14 September 2010) afternoon by project staff at the loch where the lone female beaver has settled. Prior to release the immediate area was marked with the male’s scent to encourage the female to welcome the new arrival and to stimulate interest in her future mate. The male was released directly from his transportation crate on to the loch and project staff are now monitoring his movements closely.



Present at the release and now hoping that romance will blossom was SBT’s Project Leader, Roisin Campbell-Palmer, who said: “This male is at an age where he would naturally disperse from his family group in search of a breeding partner so we are really hopeful that this arranged introduction will be the start of a very happy relationship.



“Over the next few weeks we would hope that there will be clear signs of acceptance as the pair get to know each other. Although breeding won’t take place this year, we hope they will build a lodge together which would be a good sign that they intend to remain together and potentially breed.”



On a recent visit to the project site, RZSS’s patron, HRH The Princess Royal, was given an insight into the impact these once native mammals have already had on their local environment, from lodge building to dam creation.



Simon Jones, SBT Project Manager said: “With the recent news that two of our beaver pairs have bred, we have high hopes that this new pairing will settle in, get on well and add to the beaver population in Knapdale, but we have no guarantees that the relationship will be smooth sailing.



“Introducing a new beaver to another beaver’s established territory, even if it is that of one single female, could cause some disputes. We hope, possibly after some tail slapping and signs of natural caution, our female will follow her breeding instincts and pair with the suitable male.



“We have already seen changes that the existing beavers have made on the forest and lochs of the area and by establishing a further breeding beaver pair we hope to see a true measure of their impact in coming years.”

The independent scientific monitoring of the Trial’s beavers is being undertaken by Scottish Natural Heritage, and it is their final report at the Trial’s conclusion, that will help to decide the long term future for beavers in Scotland. Twenty-five European countries have already reintroduced beavers back into the wild. Beavers are a native species to the UK and were once a common sight before they were hunted to extinction by man in 16th century. Beavers are known as a keystone species; they bring many benefits to wetland environments and improve habitats for many other animals including invertebrates, birds and otters.

The male was released following permission granted by the Scottish Government that allowed a replacement beaver to join the lone female and create a new breeding pair after her previous partner died. Prior to release, the male underwent quarantine and an in-depth health assessment to ensure he was healthy, free of disease and fit for release. Having complied with all the necessary importation checks, he was transported from Edinburgh Zoo before being released into one of the four occupied lochs in Knapdale Forest.

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Scottish Beaver Get A Boost

A fourth release of beavers has taken place as part of the five-year Scottish Beaver Trial

Scotland’s first wild beaver population gets a boost, as Trial’s fourth family is released

An additional breeding pair of two beavers, one male and one female, has now been released into the wild in Scotland as part of the Scottish Beaver Trial (SBT), a project which marks the first formal trial reintroduction of a native mammal back into the UK.

The Trial, which is a partnership project between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), aims to determine how beavers will prosper in Scottish habitats and to assess their impact in the current Scottish environment by monitoring them over a five-year trial period.

The pair, which were transported from a holding facility at the Highland Wildlife Park and released into the wild on 4 May and after nearly a week in their new home, have been settling in well. This release follows the release of three beaver families, 11 beavers, into the Trial site at Knapdale Forest, Mid-Argyll, in May last year. All animal releases follow the conditions outline as part of the licence issued by the Scottish Government.

Prior to the release, two artificial lodges were created by the project team to provide temporary shelter until the pair can build a lodge of their own. Food and used bedding will be placed in these lodges to encourage them to settle in this new loch and make it their home.

Roisin Campbell-Palmer, SBT Project Leader said: “Whenever you release an animal into the wild it is a nerve-wracking moment and you want to give them the best chance at adapting to their new environment. Knapdale is ideal for beavers and already we have seen our other animals really making it home and doing what comes naturally to them. The two beavers are in good health, having passed all the required veterinary health checks and we are confident they should settle in well.”

There are great hopes for the future of this pair and the other beavers, as Campbell-Palmer continue: “Following arrival from Norway, these beavers underwent a six-month quarantine period in England before being transported to the Highland Wildlife Park, where they have lived together for several months, giving them a chance to get used to life in Scotland. Even our harshest weather is nothing compared to the cold they have been used to. With plenty of food and space to explore we hope that this pair along with the others may start breeding in the coming months and years.”

Simon Jones, SBT Project Manager, explained more about the decision to release a fourth family almost one year into the Trial.

Jones said: “It was always a possibility for us to release a fourth family of beavers as part of our Trial. Our licence fro the Scottish Government permits us to release up to four families and we feel that by having four breeding pairs in Knapdale our Trial stands the best chance of creating a viable population of beavers. It is very important that we create the most natural conditions possible for our wild beavers to allow the results to inform decisions about the impact a wider beaver reintroduction might have on Scotland’s environment.

Over the course of the Trial, all our beavers will be tracked closely by the project team. The release of a fourth pair will provide important additional field data and hopefully show how neighbouring families of beavers interact with one another.”

The Scottish Beaver Trial could determine whether or not beavers are reintroduced into the wild across Scotland. Twenty-five European countries have already reintroduced beavers to their wild lands. Beavers are a native species to the UK and were once a common sight before they were hunted to extinction by man. Beavers are known as a keystone species and bring many benefits to wetland environments and improve habitats for many other animals including invertebrates, birds and otters.

The release of the fourth family of beavers was discussed with Scottish Natural Heritage, which is coordinating the independent scientific monitoring of the Trial.

Return of the dammed

To its supporters, the beaver is a keystone species. To others, it's a rodent with a huge appetite for deforestation. As these "charismatic beasties" are released into their new Scottish home, many are predicting trouble in the Highlands.


Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fauxto_dkp/

Driving from Edinburgh to the west of Scotland, the radio news was reporting that everyone's favourite exiled Scot, Sean Connery, will be coming out of retirement to provide the voice for an animated film, Sir Billi. The film, the report suggested, will be about an eccentric skateboarding Highland vet who goes in search of a fugitive beaver, Bessie Boo. The beaver is on the run from all kinds of trouble and only the kilted Sir Billi can save her.

Sir Billi has been five years in the making, the idea of a pair of animators based in Glasgow. Curiously, however, a year in advance of its release, the plot of the film is currently being played out for real in the hills of Argyll. Last May, in Knapdale Forest, west of Loch Fyne, three beaver families were released by the Scottish Wildlife Trust, a trial for the first ever full-scale reintroduction of a mammal species into the British Isles. The three families each had a loch to themselves, and all was going swimmingly for them until one night at the end of June, when shots were heard.

Jenny Holden, who is the Scottish Wildlife Trust field worker in charge of the beaver project, was walking her dogs that evening in the forest with her boyfriend. I'm standing with her, as she recalls what she heard, in the driving rain on a wooded hillside above one of the beaver family's lodges. "It was actually four rifle shots," she tells me. "Ironically, it was my first night off since we had released the beavers. My boyfriend is a sniper in the army and when he heard the shots he was able to say exactly what the weapon was and know where it had been fired. Straightaway, he said: 'That's right on top of your beavers, Jen.' And the next evening we had two beavers missing."


Photo By: http://www.flickr.com/photos/akbuthod/


The beavers that were released have been named after the naturalists who originally brought 17 animals over from Norway for the project, in 2008. As a result, each beaver family sounds like an Abba tribute band. The two adults that went missing after the shots were fired were Andreas Bjorn and his mate, Gunn-Rita. At first they left their infant kit, Mary Lou, behind – very unusual behaviour for tight-knit beaver families. Andreas Bjorn came back for the kit a couple of times along the Crinan Canal, which links Loch Fyne with the Jura Sound. And then all three went missing.

The beavers are fitted with radio microchips and for a few weeks Jenny Holden and her team of volunteers could be seen scouting along riverbanks trying to pick up a signal. Eventually, Andreas Bjorn was discovered 10 miles away at a fish farm that he had reached by swimming through the sea (a surprise to the beaver team, as they had not thought the beavers would move through salt water: "Andreas Bjorn hadn't read the books," Holden says). He was returned alone to his loch where he awaits Gunn-Rita and Mary Lou, who are still at large. Holden thinks she knows where they are, but they have not had "a visual" yet. Nobody knows who fired the shots, though the Argyll police have been investigating. Perhaps a skateboarding vet will come to their aid.

The missing animals are just one of the anxieties that have beset the beaver project. Seven of the original beavers brought from Norway died in quarantine in Devon, meaning that the families had to be supplemented with beavers held in Edinburgh Zoo and the Highland Wildlife Park. Holden, however, has little doubt that the £2.5m five-year initiative – £250,000 per released beaver – will be a success, and beavers will ever after roam free in Scotland.

The lodge above which we are standing – an impressive construction of lopped trees and branches, which contains at least two dens and an anteroom entered below the waterline where the beavers can get themselves dry – is the most visible evidence of that faith. It is home to Bjornaar and Katrina and their year-old kit Millie, who have been by far the most industrious of the released families. The woods nearby are testament to their eagerness: where once there was a broad and well-used footpath skirting Loch Coille Bharr, now there is a flooded area of a few hundred square metres of trees, many gnawed through by the beaver family, all dead or dying under 3ft of water. The beavers have done what beavers do – dammed the stream that links one loch with another, allowing them to swim their territory instead of walk it. The result is a "standing deadwood" landscape somewhat reminiscent of a First World War battlefield.

Holden is excited by this scene. She's been involved in wildlife conservation since she was four or five – one of those children who would appear on local evening news with a shy hedgehog or a poorly duck. She has tracked wolf packs in the Ukraine and nurtured water voles in Cumbria; for a while, owls were her thing. When she saw Scottish Wildlife's ad for a beaver wrangler, however, she knew it was her vocation. Holden is 28; she moved up here at the beginning of the year from her home in the Lake District, trailing her flock of pedigree Shetland sheep.

She talks with something of a proprietorial air

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