Gonna gnaw dae that - dam riddle solved

Published on Thursday 5 August 2010 15:52

THEY were supposed to have vanished from Scotland's landscape 400 years ago after being hunted to extinction for their precious pelts.

• Picture: PA

However, now evidence has come to light that beavers may have been gnawing their way around parts of the country in large numbers for years.

Keith Ringland, a wildlife photographer from Perth, has spent about ten months on the trail of the large rodents after hearing they had been spotted in the Tayside area.

Armed with his camera on river banks in the middle of the night, he has spotted signs of the nocturnal creatures in locations as far and wide as Glamis and Forfar to the Earn Valley.

As well as seeing regular clues such as gnawed trees, dams and piles of stripped twigs, he has caught the elusive rodents on camera on several occasions. He believes there could be as many as 100 in the Tayside area alone.

"By what I have seen in my field trips around Tayside, I would estimate that the population of beavers within the Tayside region must be at least 50 to 100 animals and it is quite likely to be many, many more than 100 animals," he said.

"All the signs point to the population breeding and thriving, while barely attracting any attention to their presence."

Simon Garbutt, who has a farm near Pitlochry in Perthshire, has seen signs of at least one beaver living nearby in the River Tay for the past three years.

He likes having the animal around, and said it only fells willow trees, which it does not kill. Instead he leaves them to grow back after gnawing them to a stump. He finds it interesting to spot what the creature has been up to over night.

"We went down to the riverside one day and I noticed a tree that looked like it had been chopped down with an axe," he said. "At first I thought someone had been mucking about.

"Then I looked around and I saw more and more trees that had been chopped down. I think he could get through a 12-inch tree in a night if he wanted to.

"And you see little piles of twigs with all the bark taken off. He does to twigs what we do to corn on the cob."

One of his neighbours found the animal had built a dam across a ditch on his land. "He tried to kick it away and it wouldn't move, so he had to get a digger to rip it out," said Mr Garbutt.

A Scottish Natural Heritage spokesman said there had been reported sightings of beavers in the Tayside area. He said: "We are aware and have been for some time that there are beavers there."The belief is they have come from private collections or owners, and that is where the responsibility lies."

He said it was not known how many beavers were living in the area, but it was "possible" they were breeding in the wild.

"We are quite frustrated that they have been able to escape. There is an animal welfare issue because they are sociable animals but their welfare is not being monitored."

Another concern is that they could be American beavers, an alien species, rather than the European variety that were once native to Scotland before they were wiped out.

And he highlighted that it was costly to trap the animals and take them back into captivity.

A controversial trial reintroduction project is taking place in Knapdale Forest, Argyll, about 50 miles from where the animals have been spotted in Tayside. Several of the animals in the trial have gone missing.

The SNH spokesman said there was no possibility any of the animals in Tayside were those that had gone missing from the official beaver trial site.

Beavers back in Scots wild

The Scottish Beaver Trial is a five-year reintroduction of the animals to Knapdale Forest in Mid-Argyll.

Three families of beavers from Norway were released in May 2009 after a licence for the project was granted by the Scottish Government.

A year on, several of the families have settled well into their new Scottish home.

However, at least one animal has died, and one family dispersed and ran off from the site, with several beavers still missing.

The trial has been controversial, with concerns over potential damage that could be done to the landscape by the animals, and fears they could dam up rivers important for salmon and trout migration.

It is a partnership between the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Scottish Wildlife Trust. Scottish Natural Heritage is responsible for monitoring the trial.

If the Scottish Beaver Trial is successful, it could lead to beavers being released across more of the country. Beavers were once common in the UK but were hunted to extinction about four centuries ago.