Where have all the beavers gone?
by David Masters
August 11, 2009
Plans to introduce wild beavers to the Scottish Highlands have been put in jeopardy by the failure of a trial scheme.
Scotland’s last wild beaver was killed 400 years ago, and wildlife agencies had planned to introduce them to the banks of the country’s rivers and lochs in a £1.8 million programme.
However, of 11 beavers brought over from Norway earlier this year for a trial, one has been allegedly shot, another has died, and two have mysteriously disappeared.
Police are investigating the alleged shooting, which involved a beaver disappearing at around the time gunshots were heard.
The animal was radio tagged, but Scotland’s rocky terrain often interferes with signals.
The two that have vanished are believed to have lost or damaged their radio tags.
Simon Jones, project manager of the Scottish Beaver Trial, said: “Field staff and volunteers have been working around the clock in an effort to track the missing beavers.
“We are obviously concerned that there could to be a link between her disappearance and the unauthorized shooting and the local police have been informed.
“We suspect that the noise from the shooting has disturbed these animals even if no direct link between the shooting and disappearance is found.”
Critics of the Scottish Beaver Trial fear beavers could harm Scotland’s angling industry by building dams and blocking streams.
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The survival rate is even worse than indicated above. In November 17 apparently healthy specimens were trapped and uprooted from their homes in Telemark, Norway, before being flown to England and placed in a quarantine facility in Devon. There six either died or escaped although mysteriously the beaver trial people have kept this very quiet.
The remaining 11 were then released in Argyll. Eight of them remain, so the overall survival rate in just 8 months is less than 50 per cent. The trial seems to have taken little or no account of the amount of stress being caused to the animals. The animal welfare organisations should really be taking note.
Comment by ags — August 11, 2009 @ 2:05 pm