Beavers in Britain

There is a particularly magical West Country woodland that I know, through which a sunlit stream meanders, braided by a series of neatly dammed pools that hum with life; dragonflies and mayflies, swallows, swifts, kingfishers, amphibians and small fish teem here in numbers rarely seen in Britain. The birdsong is cacophonous. The water’s edge is lined with the fresh growth of willow, hazel and alder, artfully coppiced as if by a skilful gardener. This wood happens to be home to a family of reintroduced beavers.

Beavers were eradicated from Britain centuries ago, hunted for their fur and for the valuable castoreum oil which is found in sacs under their tails. They are highly territorial animals, living in small family groups comprising a single pair and their ‘kits’, along with an assortment of adolescent offspring who tend to hang around until their second or third year. They use water as a means of escape, so while their food (the bark, twigs and shoots of trees, shrubs and other plants) is to be found on land, beavers never travel far from water.