Wild Wednesday - Beaver
Eurasian beavers, scientific name, Castor, were once widespread across England but became extinct about 400 years ago, due to overhunting for its fur and a natural secretion called castoreum, used for both perfumes and medicine. In recent years, they have begun returning to our waterways through a combination of licensed releases, unlawful wild releases and natural breeding.
Beavers play a crucial role in the environment, with their dam-building activities creating wetlands, which are incredibly important for biodiversity. The ponds they make can help prevent flooding, improve water quality, and provide habitats for a variety of species, including amphibians, birds, and insects.
They are the second-largest living rodents, after capybaras, weighing up to 32 kilograms.
Beavers are known for their impressive engineering skills. Preferring slow-moving rivers, streams, or lakes with plenty of trees and vegetation, with the water deep enough to build lodges (dens) out of branches, mud, and leaves, which they construct in the middle of ponds or streams. The lodge provides safety from predators and to access food safely.
They typically breed once a year, with the mating season from late winter to early spring. After mating, the female has a gestation period of around 105 days and gives birth from May to July.
A litter typically consists of one to four kits (young beavers). They are born covered in hair, with their eyes open and remain with their parents for several months, where they are cared for and taught essential survival skills.
Beavers are strict herbivores (an animal that feeds on plants) and their diet consists of woody vegetation, including bark, twigs, and leaves of trees and shrubs. In winter, they store branches underwater near their lodges to feed on when the surface water is frozen. In addition to trees, they also eat aquatic plants like sedges (grasslike plant that grows in wet ground) grasses and water lilies, especially during the warmer months when these plants are more abundant.
The BBC recently posted an article on beavers being released into the wild in England after the government approved their reintroduction - Wild beavers release approved for England - BBC News
Read more about beavers here: Beavers | The Wildlife Trusts