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  • Beavers are back in Scotland!

    Official Home of the Scottish Beaver Trial

    Welcome to the official website of the Scottish Beaver Trial – a five-year trial reintroduction of beavers to Knapdale Forest, Mid-Argyll.

    Trial News: The first beaver kits to be born as part of the Scottish Beaver Trial have now been spotted! Watch our slide-show below of the first exclusive pictures (c) Steve Gardner. We are so excited to share this news with you - it's a fantastic step forward for our project. Find out more.

    Our first beaver families were released in May 2009 and have settled in well to their new home in Knapdale Forest, Mid-Argyll.

    The project partners: the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), continue to observe the beavers closely to track how they prosper and how they are changing the environment in Knapdale.

    Scottish Natural Heritage, the body tasked with co-ordinating the independent scientific monitoring of the trial, will report to the Scottish Government on whether the conditions of the licence are being met on the ground. This Trial could help to decide the future of beavers in Scotland.

    Trial progress: Receive regular reports on the Trial's scientific monitoring more »

    The Scottish Beaver Trial is a partnership project between Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and host partners, Forestry Commission Scotland. The Scottish Wildlife Trust and RZSS are registered charities.

    http://www.scottishbeavers.org.uk/

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    Beavers born in the wild in Scotland spotted in Argyll

    The first beavers to have been born in the wild as part of a project in Argyll have been spotted by staff supervising the trial.

    Last May the species was re-introduced into the wild in a trial programme being run by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. Beavers were a native species in the UK until they were hunted to extinction.

    The newborn beavers, known as kits, are thought to be around eight weeks old, and their sighting is a significant landmark in the project, which is the first time a mammal has been re-introduced in the UK.

    Christian Robstad, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Beaver Field Officer, said: "Seeing the Trial’s newborn beaver kits was really amazing - this is a huge achievement for the project and for conservation in the UK.

    "It’s often difficult to tell if wild beavers are pregnant especially as they are elusive and largely nocturnal animals, but with our adult female beavers at two sites known to be in peak condition, there was a real possibility that kits could follow.

    "Increasingly in the last few weeks, staff and volunteers have seen more evidence that there were young around and tracking activities were stepped up. After weeks of patient observation, we were finally rewarded with not just one kit being spotted but a second kit from a different family group as well.

    "The first emerged as part of a ‘family outing’ with its parents and older sister close by to offer additional protection. It kept close to the edge of the loch and called out to its family for reassurance while it began to learn to forage for food."

    Simon Jones, the Scottish Wildlife Trust’s Scottish Beaver Trial Project Manager, added: "Receiving confirmation of the presence of at least two beaver kits this year in Knapdale is a fantastic step forward for the Scottish Beaver Trial as we can now begin to see how a small reintroduced population starts to naturally establish itself in the wild.

    "Both these beaver families are real trial success stories, having settled into Knapdale very well. Both have built their own lodge and one family has had great success building a dam to access better food supplies. This has created a magnificent new area of wetland in which wildlife is now flourishing in.

    "As beaver kits are very small, shy and look very similar to one another, there is a chance that even more kits have been born this year. We will be tracking our animals closely and hope to determine the exact number of kits produced as part of the Trial soon. This task will be made easier for us as the kits get older and more confident about emerging from the lodge and foraging for food on their own."

    Beaver kits weigh about one pound when they are born and the newly-born kits are around the size of a guinea pig. They are born with a full coat of fur, their eyes open and are able to swim. When they reach about two years old they will leave the group in search of their own territory.

    The Scottish Beaver Trial aims to provide information which could determine whether or not beavers are reintroduced into the wild across Scotland. Twenty-five other European countries have already reintroduced beavers to their wild lands.

    http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-cen...ted-in-argyll/

  • #2
    Re: Beavers are back in Scotland!

    Marking the first formal reintroduction of a native mammal species into the wild in the UK, three beaver families have now been released at carefully selected sites in Knapdale Forest, Mid-Argyll. The beavers, originally from Norway, have been chosen because they are considered to be the closest type to those once found in the UK and have all completed a six-month statutory quarantine period.




    The Scottish Beaver Trial (SBT), a partnership project run by Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and host partner Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS), officially begins today (Friday 29th May) as the first beavers to live in Scotland for over 400 years are released into the wild.


    May 28, 2009

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    • #3
      Re: Beavers are back in Scotland!

      Beaver facts - BBC Animals

      Sir David Attenborough narrates this interesting animal video following a beaver gang as it builds a dam. Great short wildlife clip from BBC show 'Beavers: Master Builders?'





      Beavers at Bamff Estate, Scotland - May 2010

      BEAVERS
      The Bamff beaver project began in 2002 when Paul and Louise Ramsay brought in two Norwegian beavers. Later two Polish beavers and a number of Bavarian beavers arrived. Two families, kept in very large enclosures, have been breeding now since 2005 and 2006 respectively, and have made a significant impact on the Bamff landscape, converting a ditch into a series of ponds and swamps by building a series of fine dams."





      http://www.bamff.co.uk/beavers.html
      Last edited by 1938 Observer; 13 August 2010, 23:29. Reason: adding extra text

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      • #4
        Re: Beavers are back in Scotland!

        Gordon, you may not see this, but hope so. Now...I live in southeastern Indiana, mainly rural, but kind of close to larger towns. I was going over to another "burg", and passed by something that looked odd to me, & as I had to be there quickly, I made a note to stop back. There was a creek near the road, & I stopped & got out. I could actually see a beaver house in the middle of the creek, & there were willows that were gnawed, & sharp looking. I also saw a dam, made by beavers, although this was middle of the day, and saw no actual beavers. Later on, I heard that the town had either moved the beavers, or blown up their dam, as the flooding creek was approaching the interstate highway!! Also my area has a large river, which had some beavers in it, & again, because of the river being used for fly fishing, etc., they trapped the beavers & took them somewhere else. That's 2 of my tales...here's another! I was walking out of my backdoor, to go down the drive to the road, & saw this gigantic beaver crossing my driveway, aiming for the ditch. I ran & got my camera, & tried to take a picture of the beaver, but he/she decided to change direction, & started heading east through my ditch, as it usually has water in it. I followed it, but it went faster because I was following it. Then it dove literally into the culvert pipe as it went into the neighbor's land. Never saw it again. However, I heard a local say that the teenage son of one of our neighbors had killed (with a gun) a beaver out in front of their house. So...I guess that "my" beaver was the forlorn mate, looking for its spouse. Heard later on, that the beavers had come from a large pond down the road. Joan

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        • #5
          Re: Beavers are back in Scotland!

          Being a good, proud Canadian, I suppose I should be pleased that a distant cousin of our iconic national critter is finding its way back home. At the same time, being a not-entirely naive Canadian, I can't help but wonder why Scotland wants these little guys back? They're fascinating animals, but their nature is to expand their range and inundate the world, so I expect it's just a matter of one or two generations of kits before there are problems of flooding and loss of valued timber. They are well-suited to wilderness but aren't very good neighbours. But maybe they'll behave better over there!

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