The European beaver (Castor fiber) is an endangered large aquatic rodent which was hunted almost to extinction in Europe, both for fur and for castoreum, a secretion of its scent gland believed to have medicinal properties.^[1]

Biology

Beavers are vegetarian, felling waterside trees to eat their bark and leaves, and eating other wetland vegetation such as the rhizomes of water lilies.

On rivers, the European beaver constructs a dam of mud and sticks to create a lake. It then builds a lodge surrounded by water, like its close relative the American beaver. However, in some areas with natural waterways it does not build a dam or lodge, but instead digs tunnels in banks and uses these as underwater entrances to burrows.

The European beaver is usually heavier than its North American relative, weighing up to 35 kg (77 lbs). It is also said to have weaker teeth and lesser reproductive capacity.^[2]

Survival

The European beaver survived in the wild in some places in Europe, and several thousand still live on the Elbe, the Rhone, the Danube and in parts of Scandinavia.

In many other places the beaver was hunted to extinction, and it is thought to have been lost from Britain in the sixteenth century.

Reintroduction

European beaver is now being reintroduced to many places throughout Europe.

Mainland Europe

Beavers have been reintroduced in Serbia. Beavers have been re-introduced in Bavaria and The Netherlands and are tending to spread to new locations.^[3]

Scandinavia

In Sweden the beaver had been hunted to extinction by the end of the nineteenth century. Between 1922 and 1939 approximately eighty individuals were imported from Norway and introduced to nineteen separate sites within the country.

Norwegian beavers also played an important role in reintroducing the locally extinct animal to Finland, but there the population also includes a substantial number of C. canadensis of Canadian origin.

In Western Jutland, Denmark the beaver has been introduced back into the wild in 1999 after it had been hunted to extinction since 1000 AD. In 2006 the danish population of beavers was around 80-90 individuals

Britain

No beavers have yet been officially released into the wild in Britain – legal release would require a licence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as for all other animals not normally resident in the wild. However, several projects have established beavers in large fenced enclosures, where they live in a near-natural state.

In 2001 the Wildwood Trust with Kent Wildlife Trust imported two families of European beaver from Norway to manage a wetland nature reserve. The beavers were gifts from the Norwegian Government which would otherwise have formed part of the annual cull. The beavers are living in a 130-acre fenced enclosure at the wetland of Ham Fen. This five-year habitat management trial is being monitored by Oxford University.^[4] The monitoring ceased after two months following a delay with the release of the beaver and the drying up of funds.

Six European Beavers were released in 2005 into a fenced lakeside area Gloucestershire.^[5]

In 2007 a specially-selected group of four Bavarian beavers were released into a fenced enclosure in the Martin Mere nature reserve in Lancashire.^[6] It is hoped that the beavers will form a permanent colony, and the younger pair will be transferred to another location when the adults begin breeding again.^[7] The progress of the group will be followed as part of the BBC's Autumnwatch television series.

A colony of beavers is established in a large enclosure at Banff, Perthshire.^[8]

A beaver living wild was confirmed in Scotland in early 2007 and was captured. It may have been released illegally.^[9]

In 2005 the Scottish Government turned down a licence application for unfenced reintroduction. However, in late 2007 a further application was made for a release project in Knapdale, Argyle.^[10] This application was accepted, and the first beavers will be released in spring 2009 ^[11]

Gallery

<gallery> Image:Biberschaedel-drawing.jpg|Skull of a beaver (Castor) Image:Biber-drawing.jpg|Eurasian beaver Image:Beaver dam.jpg|A large beaver dam Image:Bevers.jpg|Beavers in captivity </gallery>

References

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