Beavers Re-Introduced to Scotland

Nature's engineer, the beaver, is usually considered a Canadian animal. Indeed, part of the allure of the Great White North for early settlers was the abundance of the beaver, and its fur. However, up until 400 years ago, the beaver was also indigenous to Britain. Demand for beaver fur resulted in them being hunted to extinction. This week, four families of the dam builders arrived from Telemark, Norway, as part of a program to return the beaver to Britain.

Because British law is very concerned about rabies (which is virtually unknown there), the beavers will be in quarantine for 6 months. After that, the zoologists in charge of the operation will release them in Argyll, in the west of Scotland, in an area called Knapdale Woods. After five years, the scientists will assess the effectiveness of the plan, and they may decide to continue re-introducing beavers elsewhere in the country.

Simon Jones from the Scottish Beaver trial said, “All the animals will be tagged, and all the adults and the dispersing young will also be radio-tagged and some of them will have satellite tags on them as well, so we know where the animals are. Beavers are very territorial animals anyway, so once they set up on a loch system, they tend to stay there, certainly the adults and the young, so once they're establishing their territories,we don't expect there to be a lot of movement."

It's those loch systems that have generated some resistance to the plan. Some in Argyll worry that the dams will affect water drainage and could result in flooding. Also, the woodlands haven't seen a beaver in 400 years, so they worry about the preservation of the woods. Jamie McGrigor, the Conservative MSP for the Highland and Islands, said, “These appear to be terribly nice, cuddly animals, but those promoting them have never drawn attention to their detrimental effects. The agenda is being set by a relatively small number of people who want to experiment with the Scottish countryside.”

Dr. Jones believes that the success 25 other European countries have had in returning the beaver to their lands proves these concerns unfounded. He said,“If you held a straw poll of European farmers they would look at you in bemusement if you held up beavers as some kind of economic threat,” Farmers in Scotland are more likely to suffer harm from a poor performance by the Chancellor of the Exchequer or the continuing squeeze on credit than they they are from four families of beavers.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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