Oh, dam it! They've really collared me this time

Published on Friday 13 April 2007 00:11

THE long arm of the law has collared one fugitive and is closing in on the second. For the Bridge of Earn Two - beavers living illegally in the wild - the game is almost up.

DNA tests were being carried out yesterday to determine whether the captive beaver was an American or European and also as evidence in a police investigation into who released them into rural Perthshire.

Supporters had hoped the animals had gone on the run when the Scottish Executive decided the beavers - which set up home on an island in a fishery loch near Bridge of Earn - must be rounded up.

However, one of the pair believed to be living in the lodge was caught on Monday, it emerged yesterday, after being lured into a humane trap by a mix of carrot and apple.

Traps were being laid again yesterday in an attempt to catch the second beaver.

The captured beaver was taken to Highland Wildlife Park, where there are already beavers kept in an enclosure.

David Windmill, chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which runs the park and Edinburgh Zoo, said its staff had carried out the trapping operation at the request of the Scottish Executive and Scottish Natural Heritage.

He said: "They are exotic animals as far as Scotland is concerned and are there illegally.

"We have trapped one and that has been taken up and held at Highland Wildlife Park because we already have two beavers up there.

"We are going to see if there is another one [at Bridge of Earn]. People say there are two, and there probably are, but I don't think we have seen the second one."

However, Mr Windmill said that he would like to see beavers living in the wild with official approval one day, providing that a controlled trial proved successful.

Edwin Blake, a head keeper at Edinburgh Zoo, was responsible for the trapping operation.

He said

it was "totally irresponsible for any person to let a non-indigenous animal out - and also against the law".

He added: "Scottish biodiversity is having a hard enough time without having to compete with non-native animals."

Constable Douglas Ogilvie, a wildlife crime officer at Tayside Police, said an investigation was being carried out to see who either illegally released the beavers or allowed them to escape into the wild.

However, Paul Ramsay, who keeps captive beavers in a large enclosure on his Banff estate near Alyth, said many European beavers were closely related and some "virtually clonal". He spoke out against the idea beavers were "exotic" rather than native to Britain, saying there was reliable evidence of beavers in Yorkshire in the 1790s and adding "it is also thought that beavers lingered on in to the 19th century in south-west England".

He said: "Why are people making such a fuss about the beaver and totally ignoring French partridges that are so important for shooting?

"Why are the police wasting money on this when they should be concentrating on genuine wildlife crime, which is destroying birds of prey? It's because we are rather parochial, backward people. It's so stupid, so tragic."

He added: "I'm sorry they have caught the beaver at Bridge of Earn. I think that's a great shame."

Beavers have been reintroduced in many countries in Europe, and in France they are now legally protected.

Despite the capture of one of the Bridge of Earn beavers, there are, however, persistent rumours of others living in the wild in secret locations.