Beavers may win reprieve
SCORES of beavers living wild in Scotland may be allowed to go on roaming free, Scotland on Sunday understands.
Scottish Natural Heritage has submitted a report to ministers outlining the options on the future of the animals, which were discovered living on Tayside.
But the cost of continuing to find and trap the animals could be too high and the beavers, which have been living in the wild for up to a decade, may be left alone.
Environment minister Stewart Stevenson is expected to decided imminently whether that course of action can be taken or, as they are an illegal species under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, they should be captured.
The beavers have proved elusive. A previous trial attempt by SNH to trap the animals resulted in just one animal being caught, despite months of trying. The beaver was taken in by Edinburgh Zoo but later died.
A third option being considered would be to leave the beavers alone while the high-profile trial reintroduction of another group of imported beavers in Knapdale Forest, Argyll, takes place.
Only once the trial is complete and a decision taken on whether beavers are to be permanently reintroduced to Scotland would the minister pass judgement on the wild Tayside beavers.
It is not known how the Tayside beavers made it into the wild, but it is assumed they either escaped from private collections or were released.
There have been wildly varying estimates as to the numbers of the beavers, which are in a stretch of about 30 square miles between Aberfeldy, Forfar, Dundee and Perth, but latest estimates suggest that there are about 100.
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Comments
There are 19 comments to this article
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LouiseRamsay
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 11:01 PMAnd Thurland, I don't know where you get your information from, but you are also wrong about beavers needing to wear down their incisors. They mostly cut down trees down in the autumn, rarely in the spring and summer, and not in all situations. It depends what other food is available and whether or not they need materials to built and dam or lodge. Sometimes tree cutting can be annoying, but often it doesn't matter. If the trees are valued, eg orchard or garden trees it is best to wrap them with wire, if they are near enough to waterways to attract beavers. If they are willow or aspen it won't matter as they will coppice or sucker and grow again.
Mickerickerous
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 at 03:19 PMIt is noted that you continue to promulgate the idea that the beaver in Tayside are "illegal", The releaseescape and failure to recapture beavers up to a decade ago by humans were illegal acts on which the statute of limitations have long passed and there have been no prosecutions. The beaver population and their descendants, now well over a hundred of them, cannot be described as "illegal" and could be described as "unlicensed". The beaver are, of course, unaware of the difference. Our soil continues to erode into the sea as a natural process and we now know that wetlands play a vital role in carbon capture and the mitigation of downstream flooding as well as their contribution to wildlife habitat. Beaver offer a solution to river management where the costs outweigh the benefits by a factor of at least ten to one and the techniques for dealing with beavers in unsuitable locations are well known to specialist groups and easily implemented. There are many who consider that the descendants of the original population should already be protected under European Wildlife Directives and hop that the Minister will address this issue as a matter of urgency.
LouiseRamsay
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:21 PMGiardiasis is primarily spread by humans. It already exists in England. A friend of ours got it from falling into the Wye from a canoe. There haven't been any beavers in the Wye for hundreds of years. beavers don't get it in waterways that haven't already been infected by people. Canadians whose country came into being through wealth created by slaughtering large number of beavers have a bit of a cheek blaming them for spreading a disease that they gave them in the first place.
LouiseRamsay
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 10:14 PMIn Bavaria, a country with a great deal of intensive agriculture, reintroduced beavers have been estimated to provide ecosystem services (flood and drought prevention, multiplication of biodiversity, stripping out of pollutants) to the value of around 1000 Euros per beaver per year. The cost of mitigation of the problems is estimated at an average of 25 Euros per beaver per year. so Thurland, yes, there are some mitigation costs, but they are tiny compared to the much larger, often misunderstood economic benefits of beavers.. If farmers and landowners are angry with beaver impacts it is because, either they don't understand the whole picture, or they don't care. They may not be too worried about the downstream pollution and flooding that they are causing. The problem is one for governments that need to allocate money between those who bear the costs for various actions and those who benefit.
jerrymanders
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 06:02 PM#13 What a load of misty-eyed clap trap.
Elizabeth
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 07:01 AMhttp:patagonia-under-siege.blogspot.com200711beavers-get-busy-in-south-america.html This is worth a read.
Thurland
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 12:08 AM# 8 Slioch As far as the effects beavers from different continents have on the environment they're identical. Both are nocturnal meaning that you'll never see the one which gnawed through your favourite tree in the middle of the night. Why the wanton destructiveness ? Because it's absolutely imperative that they wear down their perpetually growing incisors - otherwise they'll die. Both defaecate into the rivers and streams they inhabit or dams they build. This means the same species of bacteria ( giardia lamblia ) being nurtured - causing the same nasty illness if you drink the water. Both will dig and seek shelter by burrowing into the banks of rivers and streams ( burns) if they can't build their regular dams. (Beaver parents don't take kindly to sharing the same dam - causing their kits to be cast out to fend themselvesso when another litter is on the way.). Cattle standing above a burrow can cause it to collapse - ending up with them being trapped or maimed. . Since the loss of a cow from a broken leg can amount to several hundreds of dollars, farmers in Southern Ontario have to regularly cull these "bank beavers". Scottish farmers please note. Re-wilding Scotland with beavers would be- as I wrote earlier - ecological stupidity - on the same level as introducing the cane toad into Australia. They too were "researched" before being released. Maybe there were beavers in the beginning but the Scottish countryside is now completely different from what it was back then. It's called agriculture and Scotland is the better - and bonnier - for it. .
Thurland
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 10:33 PMPending Moderation
Ron Greer
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 10:54 AM7 Now pray tell, where would the early economy of Canada been without the trade in Beaver pelts. If you want to see fouled up rivers, just take a look at the history of the Clyde. We've only just got salmon back after centuries of pollution. Beaver did not exterminate salmon in the Clyde---we did.
Ron Greer
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 10:49 AM2 Actually Beaver is a very tasty ham-like meat that's low in cholesterol, organic and high in Omega3 . It's not in surplus in the EU and does not require a subsidy at taxpayers expense. Beaver. The actions of the Beaver can create excellent habitat for other species, it does not kill or eat fish and since the end of the last Ice Age not a single salmon run has been wiped by them. What a pity we don't have a National Parks and Wildlife Service to manage them. Worldwidefarts(WWF) and Still No Hope( SNH) are not up to the task.
THX1138
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 09:56 AM#7 ...and, biologically, it's you who's the introduced pest in Canada. Do you REALLY want to argue for the culling of introduced species?
Slioch.
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 09:18 AM#7 Thurland ........ As jerrymanders pointed out earlier, Canadian beavers are a different species to the European ones, and behave differently. European beavers are widespread throughout mainland Europe without causing many problems. There is no suggestion that Canadian beavers be introduced here, nor has that been done.
Thurland
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 01:52 AMStuart wrote .I am an ex pat and have been living in Canada for 40 years and I think that you have to be crazy to even contemplate reintroducing them as they are an absolute pest.They may seem cute as long as you do not have to deal with the problems they cause or pay for the damage they do.Ask a few Canadian landowners what they think and they will laugh at you for even considering it. I too am an ex-pat living in Canada and I couldn't agree with you more Stuart. Letting beavers go wild in today's Scotland is ecological stupidity and will come to haunt those who are responsible. Apart from the physical damage to property ( see website below) there's also the fouling of streams ( burns) by their faeces - causing what's known over here ar Beaver Fever. Surprise , surprise ! The water behind those "cute" little dams of theirs is heavily polluted. The stupidist argument I've seen for bringing them back, is "diversity". If that's the criterion, then why not bring back the wolverine - their natural predator - as well. My advice to landowners, farmers, gardeners etc who suffer in anyway from this craziness, is to take whoever let these Beavers out, to court . You'll be taking the same kind of justifiable action as a farmer whose sheep have been killed by a marauding domestic dog. Check this out. This is beaver reality !! http:www.cbc.canewscanadaottawastory20111028ottawa-beaver-dam-destruction.html
manwillstoponedayhaha
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 09:07 PMComment removed by moderator
jerrymanders
Sunday, January 8, 2012 at 07:29 PM#3 Different beavers mate, yours are "American" ours are European. Just like their respective countries they behave differently. BTW you have only been in Canada 40 years yet consider your beavers to be a pest - think it's the other way around! They were there long before you set foot in their country.
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