A three-year-old female Forestry England beaver has left her first home in Cropton Forest, North Yorkshire, for a new home in the south of England. The juvenile has been paired with a Scottish male in the hope that they will successfully breed and establish a new colony. She has gone to an enclosure at Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve in Norfolk, marking a significant milestone in the five-year Forestry England trial which began in 2019 to assess the impact of beavers’ activity on flood management, biodiversity and ecosystems in Cropton Forest.
Beavers naturally stay with their parents for at least two years, after which they will either stay with the family living as an extended family group or disperse and look for their own territory. So, the three-year old, born to the original Cropton pair released in 2019, was ready to pair and breed with a mate in a new location.
Forestry England worked with partners including Beaver Trust on the careful logistical planning needed to move the female to her new home and the health checks needed before she left North Yorkshire.
Eight beavers remain in the 10-hectare enclosure in Cropton Forest where the original adult pair are thriving alongside their remaining six offspring. Kits have been born every year since they first arrived, and Forestry England is hoping for more to be born this summer.
The beavers’ ecosystem engineering has created significant improvements to the biodiversity in the forest, with many species increasing in number, including frogs, toads, otters and kingfishers. Since the original adult pair were released and began breeding, the beavers have built a large dam over two metres tall and almost 100 metres wide, which has significantly raised water levels upstream, enabling them to burrow into the banks and create an underwater entrance to their riverbank lodge. Data suggests the risk of flooding downstream has been reduced with heavy rainfall moving through the site much more slowly.
Cath Bashforth, Forestry England ecologist, said:
“It was a proud moment seeing the first Cropton beaver move on and start her own territory many miles away from where she was born, and though I do admit to a pang of sadness when she left, it’s a real sign of success for this enclosed reintroduction trial.
“It will be fascinating to see how she puts the dam building skills she’s learnt so well from her parents into practice at her new home, helping to create in Norfolk some of the incredible biodiversity benefits we’re experiencing here. The numbers and types of wildlife species we’re now seeing in such a short space of time is amazing, from the blue flash of kingfishers, the still silhouette of a hunting heron over the water and the wonderful sight of the dusk flight of the noctule bats now using bat boxes put up for them 30 years ago.
“The project is only possible through the partnerships we have with universities, volunteers and other organisations including Beaver Trust who worked hard to find our beaver her new home. We’re grateful to all of them for helping make this reintroduction such a success.”
Ross Snipp from Flamingo Land Zoo, who cared for the beaver and provided health checks before the onward journey, says,
“Flamingo Land Zoo is proud to have once again supported the team at Forestry England by providing accommodation for the beavers during their health checks and quarantine period. The zookeepers have welcomed the opportunity to be involved in this project and to use their expertise caring for such amazing animals. Our keepers built a temporary lodge for the beavers in our quarantine building and undertook daily feeding as well as remote monitoring using camera traps. Our work with the beavers is part of our ongoing commitment to native species conservation and is a great example of the role that zoos play in species conservation.”
Forestry England is working with researchers from the universities of Leeds, Hull, Teesside and Exeter and more than 40 volunteers to monitor the wildlife and ecosystem impacts of the trial. Monitoring is giving detailed data on the water quality and flow rates in the wetland area upstream and downstream from the beavers’ dams, and aerial imaging is being used track changes to the site which the beavers have created. Camera-trap video is building a clear picture of the beavers’ behaviour, and dedicated volunteers are doing regular on the ground biological monitoring, putting in more than 1,000 hours to the trial so far.
Forestry England will keep monitoring the Cropton Forest beavers over the remaining two years of the trial, assessing the impact they continue to have on biodiversity and flood management. Other juveniles may be relocated if the right homes are found for them.