Beavers have returned to the waters of Somerset and Wiltshire, hundreds of years after being wiped out.
Escapes from enclosures and unlicensed introductions are suspected to be behind the rodent’s return.
As many as 50 beavers could be living in the West Country, Natural England has revealed.
The government’s nature advisor had been investigating the possibility of beavers in the region following reports of the rodents in and around the Rivers Frome and Avon. The resulting report, published earlier this month, found a wealth of evidence that beavers were thriving in the areas, including dams, gnawn trees and burrows.
In total, it is estimated there could be anywhere from 36 to 62 adult beavers in sections of the rivers near Bath, Chippenham and Trowbridge, living in 13 families. If baby beavers, known as kits, and family units living in areas of the river which couldn’t be surveyed are included, then this figure could be even higher.
A spokesperson for the Avon Wildlife Trust previously described the presence of beavers in the area as ‘extremely significant’, adding that ‘the presence of this beaver population will support other wildlife and help us to tackle the ecological emergency.’
Where have the West Country’s beavers come from?
Eurasian beavers are rapidly being reintroduced across the UK, having been driven to extinction in the country over 400 years ago through hunting for the fur, meat and perfume trade. The mammals are now present across the country, from Scotland all the way south to Devon and London.
Officially, beavers can only be reintroduced into enclosures with a license from the government. However, many beavers are living wild following escapes from these sites, as well as unofficial introductions.
For instance, one of the UK’s largest populations of beavers can be found in Tayside, Scotland, is thought to be the result of a mixture of accidental and illegal releases.
While beavers are now considered a native species in England, Wales and Scotland, it is still a crime to release them without a license, which can result in up to two years in prison as well as an unlimited fine.
Many of the beavers in the West Country are thought to have been released unofficially, with the report estimating that these have probably taken place since 2016. Others, meanwhile, may be the descendants of animals which escaped from a private collection in the 2000s.
The beavers have now spread widely, with the majority of the families found in the River Frome, a tributary of the River Avon. Four families are found in the Avon itself, while another is found on the By Brook.
Though there had been reports of beavers in the River Brue and Kennet and Avon Canal, the latest report didn’t find enough evidence to verify their presence.
In total, the beavers may occupy as much as 11% of the available riverbanks in the areas of Wiltshire and Somerset where they live. Each family is estimated to have a bankside territory as long as eight kilometres, which is above average for England’s beavers.
While they may cover a relatively large area, the beavers are not thought to be having a major impact on their ecosystem at the moment. Though some families have started building dams and felling trees, the majority are still getting established in their new home.
With beavers having been made a protected species in England in October 2022, it’s thought that their populations will only grow if left undisturbed. While the report notes their activities could eventually pose a risk to transport, this is not likely in the near future.
Instead, it recommends further research to promote co-existence with these beavers. Assessing their genetic health, and coming up with management plans, can help to ensure these rodents can keep beavering away in the West Country.
The signs are instantly recognizable: partially chewed trees, pointy stumps and sprawling collections of sticks and logs in the middle of waterways. These all signal the presence of beavers, the plump, semi-aquatic critters that were once nearly hunted to extinction.
Established wildlife laws and reintroduction brought their numbers to stable levels, but they still remain a fraction of what they once were. Further recovery of beaver populations is crucial.
Because they significantly alter, manage and even improve the areas around them, beavers have earned the title of “ecosystem engineers.” Their work enhances the surrounding landscape and ecosystems, making these critters some of the most important, not to mention adorable, stewards of nature. Here are five ways beavers help the environment.
Beavers help control water flow.
You might assume that since beaver dams block water, they must cause floods, but that’s far from the case. Dams are penetrable structures that slow water flow, resulting in less erosion and flooding than undammed, fast flowing water. Dams physically store water on land where it soaks into the soil and initiates plant growth, able to turn bone-dry areas into bountiful wetlands. If you repeatedly visit beaver habitat in different seasons, you can see the transformations that take place thanks to their dams. A landscape often looks completely different from even just a few months prior.
Beavers improve water quality.
Rainwater runoff from artificial surfaces washes toxins into waterways, threatening aquatic ecosystems. Wetlands surrounding beaver dams act like kidneys by removing pollutants from water, effectively cleaning it. As dams decrease water flow, nutrient-rich sediment usually swept away by the current instead sinks and collects on the bottom. This abundance of minerals filters and breaks down harmful materials like pesticides and leaves areas downstream of dams healthier and less polluted than upstream.
Beaver activity creates more habitat for other wildlife.
Since beaver dams slow water flow, the original path is altered as the water meanders over additional ground, creating more wetlands where other species thrive. Important plants that feed animals and provide for people see their numbers increase over 33% in beaver wetlands, while birds nest on riverbanks, fish swim about and mammals forage for food in these natural havens. In fact, 25% of species living in these wetlands fully depend on beaver activity for survival.
Beavers stop wildfires.
Increasing wildfires destroy nature and emit greenhouse gasses, but beaver activity can hold the devastating flames at bay. Wetlands made by beaver dams concentrate water and moisturize the landscape, making it harder for fires to spread as potential fuel becomes harder to burn. Wildlife can shelter in these wet sanctuaries, safe from an encroaching blaze. Beavers might not drive red trucks or slide down poles, but they make an excellent fire department nonetheless.
Beavers help us fight climate change.
The primary driver behind climate change is the massive amount of carbon human activity pumps into the atmosphere. The more we emit, the more it builds up, but beavers help reduce its accumulation as their wetlands absorb and store the greenhouse gas. Globally, beaver wetlands hold 470,000 tons of carbon each year and perform carbon-capture work worth tens of millions of dollars. Restoring beavers to their natural habitats and widespread numbers can lead to further carbon absorption as the animals proliferate, construct dams and establish more wetlands. More beavers mean more wetlands, which mean less atmospheric carbon, a win-win-win scenario.
The incredible feats beavers perform should not be understated, whether it’s their beneficial environmental work or ability to transform landscapes. As the world’s foremost natural ecosystem engineers, they play crucial roles in managing nature unlike any other animal. You can celebrate these incredible critters on International Beaver Day every April 7. The next time you’re hiking and come across those telltale bites on trees or piles of sticks, be sure to thank a beaver for all they do in supporting the natural world by just being their busy little selves.
Beavers in the snow and ice fascinate us. This photo was posted on the Norwegian beaver site yesterday with the explanation that a progressive freeze and thaw made it possible. i myself like to imagine an entire family chewing on the trunk should to shoulder – dad, mom. yearling, and kit with descending heights all represented. They wrote:
We received this photo last week from Troy Sweeney of an American beaver who has made this practical stairway. We have heard that similar beaver-made stairways have been observed in ice-covered river banks. Anyone heard of that?
Todd Sweeny: beaver stairway
isn’t that lovely? When you think of the very cold freeze across America this year, and the places that don’t usually get ice and snow suddenly filled with frozen lakes and streams, I wonder how beavers are faring in Georgia or Alabama. They never expected this weather either, so its not hard to imagine they were unprepared for it. I’d be curious if the ones that survive suddenly start to food cache next year?
It would certainly teach us something about beaver ability to plan for the future based on new data. Which, if you think about it, would actually make them smarter than lots of humans.
Dee Cavasina of the Finger Lake Times in New York wrote about beaver in the snow in this recent column.
New York’s official state mammal, beavers average 40-45 pounds with lengths up to 36 inches, of which their tail adds another 12-14. Even though this semi-aquatic, nocturnal creature is rarely spotted, this does not deter us from knowing of their presence. If you venture on an early morning or near dusk tour, you might be fortunate enough to witness a beaver or two gliding through the pond their dam has created. Remain inconspicuous, though, as beavers are shy, and although they will defend their territory with a vengeance from other beavers, they would rather not interact with humankind.
Nonetheless, the beaver is an amazing creature with ability to visualize, manipulate and craft their environment for living that stands second only to that of humans. They will assess areas for running water as well as surrounding environment in order to sustain a developed water depth, via their dam, which will provide safety and enable travel to and from their lodge even after winter’s freeze.
The beaver … true visionaries, perfecting their environment to meet their needs while inadvertently providing further habitat for fish and waterfowl; an amazing feat that can be witnessed while visiting beyond the fence.
Nice praise of beavers, but you stopped before you started to get to the good stuff! If you think those paragraphs describe what beavers do as amazing then wait until I tell you how their dams change the entire ecosystem! You’ll be flabbergasted!
So recently I was contacted by a beaver watcher in Navarra Spain who asked some questions about lodges and food caches. I told her my thought that beavers were unlikely to use food caches in that climate. It just so happened that around this time a European beaver buddy shared a notice for this presentation on beavers. So of course I sent it her way.
To my surprise, she very excitedly attended and really enjoyed it, sending me the handouts afterwards. One of them was a list of articles on castor fiber which started with Duncan Haley’s population paper. I thought he might like to know this so I sent it his way. He was very pleased and sent along some of his observations about the issues I thought you’d be interested in. (Pause a moment to check out the temperature recorded by the nightcam.)
It’s my experience that Eurasian beavers prefer to dig burrows when they can (it seems N. American beavers are more prone to building lodges; and it seems only them that build ‘island’ lodges out in the water – all Eurasian lodges I have ever seen are bankside.
So if a deep enough bankside of soft enough material for digging is available, with deep enough water beside it (about a metre or more), that is where they will burrow. Over the years I have gotten so I can (and have) predicted where the burrow would be in a site occupied by beavers, by looking at an overview of the terrain available.
The roof of the chamber at the end of the burrow is shallow, and air can get through by diffusion. It is so shallow that it often collapses by itself (and will almost always do so if e.g. a tractor drives over the top). If that happens then it is roofed over with sticks and mud. Sometimes this is called a ‘burrow lodge’ – the lodge part (of sticks and mud) being connected to the water by the burrow.
Where it’s not practical to dig a burrow – where the soil is shallow or stony, or the terrain so flat that there is no rise high enough to burrow in and build a chamber above water, then Eurasian beavers will readily build a lodge. They also usually move their main burrow/lodge site quite frequently, moving it around within the territory and exploiting heavily the resources nearest the lodge, before moving and refocusing (while the boundaries of the territory seem to be stable). So there are usually several burrow or lodges, or frequently a mix of types, inside a territory.
It is said in the literature that the whole family lives in one lodge most of the year, but that only the breeding female and the young use it after she gives birth. At that time the others use old or secondary burrows/lodges.
Beaver food caches look like a big pile of sticks in the water (see attached photos), and are always found immediately outside the main lodge/burrow entrance. In cold climates like Norway, it is one good way of finding active burrows. Research needs to be done on what triggers beavers to build food caches. Anecdotes say that northern beavers reintroduced in the south prepare for a northern winter the first year, but then adapt. Where currents keep water open, beavers are active in winter even when it is very cold, down to at least -27C in my experience. In climates like Navarre, most beavers will not need to make winter food caches. It seems that most in such places do not build them. I would be interested to know if any of them do, and if it is related to altitude. In the 2008 photo, the lodge is on the right (the large sticks, often stripped of bark). The cache is the mass of twigs in the water on left. Most of the mass is underwater, like an iceberg (and so available even after the surface freezes).
The ‘North Lodge’ photos show a large beaver lodge just in shot to bottom left, and a very large food cache when it is at its biggest in early December; a beaver clearing a path in the snow to allow it to add material to the lodge; and a beaver pulling a branch up onto the lodge in the foreground while another feeds at the food cache.
Don’t you feel better now? My Spanish pen pal was very grateful for the information and now is fully committed to learning more about beavers. So I feel my work here went very well.
By the way, this was the other handout at her conference. It’s the introduction to the epic poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “Hiawatha“. Reading the Spanish version makes me think he might just have preferred it.
There’s more info on the website. But don’t miss this flattering article below! They really did a great job of describing just how valuable we are!
etheless, the beaver is an amazing creature with ability to visualize, manipulate and craft their environment for living that stands second only to that of humans. They will assess areas for running water as well as surrounding environment in order to sustain a developed water depth, via their dam, which will provide safety and enable travel to and from their lodge even after winter’s freeze.
Beaver food caches look like a big pile of sticks in the water (see attached photos), and are always found immediately outside the main lodge/burrow entrance. In cold climates like Norway, it is one good way of finding active burrows. Research needs to be done on what triggers beavers to build food caches. Anecdotes say that northern beavers reintroduced in the south prepare for a northern winter the first year, but then adapt. Where currents keep water open, beavers are active in winter even when it is very cold, down to at least -27C in my experience. In climates like Navarre, most beavers will not need to make winter food caches. It seems that most in such places do not build them. I would be interested to know if any of them do, and if it is related to altitude. In the 2008 photo, the lodge is on the right (the large sticks, often stripped of bark). The cache is the mass of twigs in the water on left. Most of the mass is underwater, like an iceberg (and so available even after the surface freezes).
The ‘North Lodge’ photos show a large beaver lodge just in shot to bottom left, and a very large food cache when it is at its biggest in early December; a beaver clearing a path in the snow to allow it to add material to the lodge; and a beaver pulling a branch up onto the lodge in the foreground while another feeds at the food cache.
