beavers | Christine Lucas

Day 29: For today’s 30 Days Wild, I’d planned to tune into The Wildlife Trusts’ Wild LIVE: Bringing Back Beavers, however it has been postponed. Beavers went extinct in the UK during the 16th Century. For the past 20 years The Wildlife Trusts’ have been at the forefront in restoring beavers back to the rivers they once inhabited. This Wildlife Trusts’ talk was to celebrate the reintroduction of this ecosystem engineer and why beavers are so essential in the restoration of nature in the UK.

wild live

Here’s some facts on the Eurasian beaver.

The beaver (Castor fiber) was a semi aquatic mammal native to Britain before it was hunted into extinction for its fur and castoreum, a secretion used in perfumes and medicine. They are a keystone species due to their positive influence on the environment. They prefer freshwater habitats. They dig canal systems, coppice trees and shrubs, and create wetlands which in turn has enormous benefits on other species such as otters, fish and birds. As they create their environment, their influence can be seen in the reduction of flooding, increased water retention and cleaner water.

Eurasian Beaver from the Northwitch Guardian

Their home is called a lodge, made up of sticks and branches and they live in small family groups. They are herbivores and willow bark, twigs and leaves are their favourite foods. Beavers are a large mammal weighing in at around 30kg and are as large as a Labrador. Their teeth are orange due to the protective iron enamel and like all rodents they grow continuously throughout their life. They are crepuscular meaning active during dawn/dusk, and can remain underwater for 15 minutes. There are currently eight beaver reintroduction projects across the UK with several more upcoming.

Have you ever seen a beaver in the wild?

Thanks for reading, and stay wild!

Christine xx