Three bites and out for fugitive beaver

Published on Thursday 3 May 2007 00:12

AN ESCAPED beaver which chopped down six apple trees in Perthshire has been recaptured after being lured into a trap by its favourite food.

An apple proved too enticing for "Mary" and she was caught early yesterday morning and has now been returned to a pen on Paul Ramsay's estate near Alyth.

The beaver had managed on two previous occasions to make off with the bait without being caught by the trap. Mr Ramsay said he had moved her to a pen containing two other beavers, and to an area which they did not seem to use.

"If they think 'that's our area, what's this beaver doing there?', they might go and throw her out," he said.

"But I hope they won't and her neighbours approve of her presence or won't notice." Meanwhile, no sign has been seen of the second of two beavers thought to have been living in the wild on an island in a fishery loch near Bridge of Earn.

One of the "Bridge of Earn" two was caught and is now being kept at Highland Wildlife Park, but experts from Edinburgh Zoo have not seen evidence of the second beaver.