How Beavers Fully Revitalised This UK River

beavers have been absent from the UK for hundreds of years that was of course until a pair had been spotted along the river otter in Devon back in 2008 why did they disappear and how did they make it back without a formal reintroduction and have they been making a splash recently there's been some really positive news for English beavers on the 1st of October 2022 beavers were given full legal protection in England this news has been a long time coming and it's something which simply wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the first beavers of Devon and their story which you're going to learn all about in this video and for years now I've been logging to see some beavers in the wild in the UK so early one Thursday morning I set off and headed to the river otter in the hope of scoring some Beaver action while I'm on route to Devon let's understand why the Beavers disappeared from the UK in the first place the Eurasian Beaver is native to Britain but it was hunted to extinction by the 16th century for its water resistant fur which was used to make hats and its scent glands which were used in perfumes food and medicine because of this they were wiped out and what we lost wasn't just an iconic unique animal but one that this wonders for the ecosystem after a relatively smooth journey I arrived on the river otter around midday which is kind of the worst time to see beavers as they are crepuscular meaning they're most active at dawn and at dusk and through the night so with my head torch in my bag I was mentally preparing to stay out for the night but it wasn't long before I got my first sightings of beaver activity okay the old tree which they failed this happened a long time ago there's a full-on tree that's come down boom there you go look limb down on the tree again here we go another old one how can I chew through that that's actually a very good question rob you see Venus teeth are literally made of iron there's actually two substances in viva's Tooth Dental shocked out and that's at the back and it continuously grows but the iron comes down the front so real Annoying that iron forms this like a sharp chisel shape more signs of beavers this is like quite a recent one beavers Beaver signs signs of beavers beavers have just absolutely decimated gone to town that's mad more signs of beavers than I'm joking this one actually just looks like it's wind blown decaying with the King fungus here Ganoderma look at this look beavers this looks like Prime Beaver habitat in here so all of this gnawing biting and filling of trees is the main reason why we get excited or sometimes frustrated about beavers for me they're one of the creatures most deserving of the title ecosystem engineer a beaver feels safe in the water it's how they enter and exit their dens where they nurse they're young and it's how they ACCESS food always with a safer treat back into the water it's in their instinct to stop that flow of running water by building dams which increases the area and depth of water before the death Dan building brings opportunities for the landscape but also conflicts in the wrong areas a working Beaver is a happy Beaver for the surrounding ecology it's like Rocket Fuel before we learn all about how the beavers have been impacting Devon let's see how I'm getting on looking for them after walking all the way down to the Estuary I decided to head back into town and take a little break I mean after all the Beavers weren't going to be out until dusk anyway that beer was known as otter bitter you're a little bit light-headed after that let's remember there was no formal introduction of beavers to Devon at least not in the beginning so how did two beavers make it back well truth is no one knows for sure but there's two likely explanations one is that they escaped from nearby enclosures sometimes as Beaver kits mature they feel the need to expand into their own territory and the other theory is that they were illegally released now if this was the case it didn't really give the Beavers the best chances not least because they were a male and female who were closely related what's your theory on this do you think it's just too much of a coincidence that beavers escaped into the perfect habitat or do you think that some beavers just want it out let me know your thoughts down in the comments following the first sighting of beavers in 2008 kids were born in 2014. this brought the government into action and they initially planned to capture and remove the Beavers they feared that the Beavers might be carrying a type of tapeworm that's not found in the UK but thankfully thanks to the Devon Wildlife trust the local community and numerous other organizations they persuaded the governor government to wait until a five-year trial period was over knowing just what good the Beavers could bring to Devon on a limited budget the river otter Beaver Trail began in 2015. to begin with the Beavers were trapped id'd screened tagged and released again during the trial an additional five beavers were released to ensure genetic diversity and as suspected the beaver spread out all across the river otter and its tributaries it's thought that there's at least 15 family groups currently Up and Down the River along smaller streams you'll find dams and in the more open and deep parts of the river you'll find lodges and feeding sites in total over the five-year trial beavers built 120 dams frogs love beavers now I don't actually think there's ever been a direct romance between the two I think that's biologically impossible but anyway several year study was conducted in Devon pre-beaver and after the beaver's influence where they counted the number of frogs born at the start there was just 10 clumps and after the seven years as the Beavers influence grew there was something like over 680 clumps of frog spawn and frogs are used by colleges as an indicator of ecosystem Health you know they're a good meal for a lot of other creatures and the habitat that they depend on is also good for a number of other creatures too beavers create Eco tones on different scales an ecotone is the transitional space between two habitats it's this diversity in the structure and of the elements the water the trees and the mud that brings and creates opportunity for biodiversity but what about fish there's a common misconception that beavers eat them which is not true beavers are herbivores however there is some interest in understanding how dams affect fish for example the Brown Trail quite territorial fish has been very happy in the deep water before Devon's beaver dams the study looked at how the sizes of fish varied in different habitats created by The Beaver Brown Chow have been found elsewhere but they've just been slightly bigger before the dam from literally floating and eating all the other smaller fish and invertebrates one thing to bear in mind is that all of the fish co-evolved with beavers for millions of years so they know how to live together beaver dams can grow very quickly and they don't often show up in the areas that people want they transition into large ponds within just a few months going through the river ought to Beaver trail report I found a case study where both the positives and the negative effects of beavers have been felt in just one area in the village of East budley now this is a flood prone Village in the past 20 years they've experienced five major flood events here beavers moved in and they colonized a part of the river and they built several dams in quite close proximity this meant that the water was being held higher up the catchment and in periods of high rainfall didn't all come streaming down into the village and flood it and when our towns and our Villages flood it's not just an annoyance but our homes and our businesses are destroyed and it can cost Millions sometimes tens of millions of pounds of damage trade-off here was that the farmer's field was flooded and he lost a proportion of his land and he lost around 2 000 pounds worth of annual profits it is a great opportunity for the government to step in and provide payments to the farmers to provide these kinds of Public Services while I was walking up and down the river I was struck by the clarity of the Water by the number of different animals I saw an array of birds mammals invertebrates and fish as the day grew on and the sun got lower in the sky I was hopeful my chances would increase and I'd finally see the beaver I think I think that's my first Beaver right there got a bit of beaver isn't it was that an otter is that the fish I think it's a fish trout we're aware that beavers can sometimes cause conflicts in the landscape but what are some of the solutions that have been used in Devon a flow device has been used to control the height of the water behind beaver dams it's just a protected pipe that passes through the dams and allows for the water to flow through thus controlling any flooding trees can be protected using guards and crops can be protected using electric fencing but what about when these measures aren't enough in this situation ideally beavers would be translocated but this relies upon there being another suitable site for them to go to and when this isn't available the discussion turns to color but with this new protection for the Beavers it means that landowners now need a license from Natural England to even touch beaver dams so Colleen really will be a loss of zor and something that we hope does not happen so how was I getting on spotting the Beavers well the sun had set and Twilight have Woodland truly begun as I was walking Upstream I saw a group of people standing still and they waved me over I thought to myself this could only mean one thing and there they were through the undergrowth was an adult evil with two kits at first it was very hard to see them through all the vegetation and my tripod only having two legs made it tricky to keep the camera steady but I feel like I got some really nice footage of them they won the fire Bank eating some Twigs making the occasional little splash but then the adult decided to head along to recently filled Willow remember that one we saw earlier in the day well they were now beginning to strip each Bunch off and take it back to a safe place to eat soon it got so dark my footage was starting to get a little grainy but I'd done it I'd seen my first wild beavers here in the UK a driving force of nature such as a beaver returning to our waterways really puts the debate on the table how committed are we at making space for nature huge credit must go to those that insured the river or to Beaver Trail was a success but there's still a lot more work that needs to be done to get to be the widespread and working with the Modern Day UK landscape I hope we'll begin to see them more and more across the UK but in the meantime thank you so much for watching leave curious [Music] um I'm now just kind of controlling up and down taking my time the sun has nearly set these guys are having a great time it's the life hey

Channel: Leave Curious

Views: 323,979

Keywords: beavers in the uk, rewilding britain, rewilding britain beavers

Id: CKr0vYnIJs0

Length: 10min 24sec (624 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 07 2022