An evening stroll along my local river – nightfall was approaching and I could sense a stirring in the air, as if the creatures of the gloaming were about to emerge.
I scanned the opposite bank in hope of spotting an otter or a kingfisher, but it was a dark, furry rotund form at the bottom of a steep section of bank that caught my eye – a beaver! It was grabbing overhanging leaves and other luxuriant vegetation with its front paws and munching with such enthusiasm that the chewing noise was clearing audible.
Then, another movement, this time in the water – a small brown head swimming with a V-shaped wake across the river towards the sandy shelf where the other, much larger, beaver was feeding. This was a beaver kit – young and full of the zest of life, and a standard bearer to the integral beauty of nature and the hope of a new beginning. The kit emerged onto the bankside to greet its mother, rising on its hind-legs as if in celebration of their reunion.
They both fed together for several minutes, before sliding back in the water, their long paddle tails slithering along the sand bank as they did so. Beavers are remarkable creatures – unusually for a rodent, the parents are faithful and pair for life, and the young are born fully-furred with open eyes, and can swim from the moment of birth.
Watching the mother and kit was an emotional experience, and it was like spiralling back into the depths of time when wolves and bears once roamed Scotland and it was a truly wild place. As such, the return of beavers to Scotland after centuries of extinction is something we should all celebrate, for they belong here and are as much part of our rivers as are trout and salmon.
Beavers do sometimes come into conflict with farming and other landowning interests – I fully understand that – but the environmental benefits they bring are immense and in the 21st century it should not beyond the wit of humanity to live with nature, rather than continually seek to destroy it.
Research has consistently shown that where beavers are present, biodiversity is significantly enhanced by their activities, making them animals to cherish. In areas where beavers dam small burns, the large ponds created above abound with invertebrates, amphibians and water plants. Many trees felled are coppiced rather than killed and will spawn new green shoots of recovery. The clearings created enables sunshine to filter to the ground below, enabling, wildflowers and their pollinators to prosper. Tumbled trees slowly rot, providing refuge and places to reproduce for a host of other invertebrates and fungi. A tree felled into a river acts like an ocean reef, providing shelter for fish and many micro-creatures.
The activity of beavers has been engrained in the natural order since the dawn of time, ensuring a diverse environment that supports more life than would otherwise be possible, which in turn brings vitality to our environment that benefits us all.
