Devon is worried. They haven’t seen their famously uninvited beavers since September. (Well, neither have we.) Hopefully they’ll be lucky and they’ve just moved downstream or are taking a vacation. But surely there are as many people who want them dead in Devon as there are in Martinez.
Maybe even more?
Man hasn’t seen beavers in Devon for two months
Fears are growing for a family of England’s only wild beavers – which haven’t been spotted for nearly TWO months. Researchers monitoring the group are growing concerned after one of the families went missing – believed to have been scared off by dog walkers.
The 10-strong collection of beavers, discovered by amateur wildlife cameraman Tom Buckley, are the first breeding wild-beavers in Britain since the 17th century. Initially it was feared they would damage the environment around their home, but a license was eventually granted to a research group to monitor their progress. But now the group from the Devon Wildlife Trust are growing concerned after cameraman Tom reported that one of the three families has disappeared.
Tom has been by the beavers side since he first spotted them in February 2014. But he now fears for one family of beavers, after they went missing in September from their burrow close to a public footpath.
I’m sorry for Tom, because worrying about beavers is very hard work. And would be troubled by that odd headline if the first comment hadn’t clarified its purpose, but allow me to say, as a woman who has watched beavers fairly steadily for nearly 9 years, they are harder to see in the winter months. They always area. Even our friends in Napatopia have been complaining lately. This is partly because they have longer hours without daylight and more options – which means they choose not to come out when folks are around. If you check our sightings pages for the past few Novembers and Decembers you will see barely two sightings per month, although of course there are exceptions.
All I’m saying is don’t panic, but keep looking, because beavers are good at surprising you.
Here’s what I worked on yesterday, which seems appropriate for Devon now too. A friend sent me the idea about rabbits and thought it would be better with beavers. (Well, isn’t everything?) I am very proud. Especially of the toes.
