How this goes is crucial. If this proves successful there is no reason why other urban areas such as rural villages like mine couldn't start to look at reintroducing beavers. Our council is looking at expensive flood controls upriver but perhaps this is more the answer. We are a natural wetland area and have freshwater wetlands which is apparently quite rare. Unfortunately, we have a Conservative council that doesn't see the value of nature despite the fact we are rural communities!
A conservative council should see the appeal of beavers as low cost flood control. If you already have wetlands it is likely beavers could greatly improve their quality which would be desirable as well.
Great to see Sadiq Khan and councillors showing their support on Twitter in recent months and spreading the news, other politicians need to get onboard.
As a Canadian, I'm a bit biased, but I think that you should set the beavers free. There was a city in California that had 'problem' beavers. Then they had a wildfire, and the area behind the beaver occupied land didn't burn because the beavers created a fire break. Beavers slow flood waters, enrich the soil by adding moisture, diversify species, and are cute as hell. There are ways to balance the problems beavers can cause without removing them from the land and they more than make up for what little trouble they cause.
Fascinating to see the shift in perspective towards urban and rural spaces not needing to be kept separate. There's no reason why urban spaces can't have wild natural areas, nor for greens and greys to blend seamlessly together.
Conservation restoration is essential for our future. I’m a KIWI from down under (NZ) and support your amazing work bring inspirational stories of hope
I live in Calgary, Canada. I'm used to having beavers in our city river, ponds, waterways, etc. There will be many challenges and benefits from having beavers.
This is awesome! I lived in Scotland for my entire life and regularly heard of the beaver rewilding project since I lived by the river Tay. Never got to see one in real life though, not even when I visited the Highland Wildlife Park. Fast forward to this past summer when I first moved over to Canada and got to see my first beaver when I went kayaking in rural Quebec. One of the coolest-looking animals I have ever seen! Since then, I have gotten to see a whole range of animals that once lived in Scotland. Bison, moose, bears, wolves, eagles and lynx amongst others. It is such an interesting experience to see how well Canadians are able to live alongside all these different sorts of creatures. From raccoons and skunks in urban cities to bighorn sheep and wolverines in the mountains, it seems there is infrastructure to deal with whatever nature presents. The UK has a lot to answer for in our pursuit to turn our country into a glorified front lawn, but it just shows what we could be like if we all took the time to think about how our nation is currently.
I am from the South of Germany. I really hope we will be part of this too, we have many old waters that are drying up during summer… this would be perfect, since the landscape is right next to the Rhine river and used to be like that before human intervention
There are already growing populations of wild beavers in many parts of Germany. A friend of mine had to go around one on a bike path in his village in Hessen and on a Kajak trip I personally saw small trees which were chewed off by beavers. They are at home in the wild again, here. Eventually, they will also conquer your river system and your region, if there are suitable habitats.
well i have conserns, do the people actually know what they signed up for. beavers will nost just swip around and be fun public atractins, beavers have need to build, they cut down trees for that what is they normal behaviourm they also eat treebark. And this samll clousyre will be too small and too civilized for them. Next thouse people are going to see beavers as problem and they destroy they home and familys. Dont use animals for experiments.
This is what happens when libs want to see some beaver bro ... Your absolutely correct they haven't thought far past just releasing them .. They will wreck shit as someone sho owns 800 acres in Maine in the woods ..they make lakes here lol .. Hope they have full time ppl to fix what there gonna build and bust ..maybe they did think but what you think vs what they think is going to be different
I'm currently a third year ecology and conservation student at the University of Brighton and these are kind of things I would love to work on when I graduate
Congratulation from this Canadian. I'm positive you will find this move to be very rewarding. But be warned it may not always go to plan. Beavers like humans are dedicated ecosystem engineers & sometimes their 'improvements' are not always compatible with human needs. So as long as you can tolerate the occasional loss of a favourite tree or flooded roadway, enjoy!
The annoyances like high water are easily handled. A big overflow pipe sitting on top of their dam wall with cages on the ends limits the water height. A small inconvenience and I hope we see more countries following Canada's and other country's lead.
@@tepidtuna7450 I think they should know all this by now as they have reintroduced beavers in other parts of the UK so should have acquired enough knowledge on the issue. I hope they have done their research properly. 🤞
@@jujutrini8412good point re research. We are a small overcrowded country and now planning more new towns to be built. We are not Norway or Canada with plenty of space.
this is so exciting! we're restoring a half acre of beaver habitat in Oregon USA and we're happy to get to support our wetland friends. they're treated like pests and it makes us more determined to protect the family that's made a home with us.
Oh wow haha. At 8:10 the orange tshirt seems to have a VERY interested party swoon and hang on each utterance. It's sweet. I hope they have countless kids 😁❤️
Congratulations from Norway! 🎉 If the beavers are to be back permanently in the UK they must be allowed to disperse freely I think. Not sure what hinders that, if there is too much density of buildings and people or what. I so hope someone acknowledge how Norway saved the beaver and the whitetailed eagle to now repopulate Europe. I think my country badly needs that kind of recognition to counterweight the awful attitude and treatment we struggle with towards our predators. But I am very happy you have beavers back! They do disperse themselves here and in Sweden (we gave the first to them a long time ago) not needing humans anymore to do it for them. Good luck London Beavers 🇬🇧🍀🦫🇳🇴💕
@@LeaveCurious Well so can Norway! I’m very proud of saving these two species and sharing them, but also very worried about our own treatment and attitudes of both politicians and many people (by all means not everyone) towards our wildlife and in particular our predators. Right now we have a coalition government of our Labour party and the Center party which is essentially a farmers and rural party. Many of us on the left feel betrayed by how this has been bad news for both conserving bogs and wetlands and for our predators, and unfortunately them being unpopular for several other reasons will likely lead to a rightwing government the next time which always does even more damage to nature. These attitudes and the power behind, makes me hope that European recognition for the good things we have managed to do in giving back the beaver and white tailed eagle could help towards more Norwegians standing up for protecting our wildlife while we still have more of it than many other European countries. We could easily have the lynx, wolves, wolverines (and maybe even bears but they need very undisturbed old forest large areas) in greater numbers instead of hunting them because we still have such large areas of nature (we don’t hunt bears btw). Rewilding isn’t a thing here yet. I so wish it was! It’s easier to preserve the little that is left of real old forest ecosystems than create new ones that take centuries. Norway is in a unique position with our predators, they need mostly only to be left alone and they will increase. Sorry for the rants 😅 I follow rewilding in the UK and some projects in continental Europe. I have lived in England a bit as a child and it feels like a part of me. I try to “rewild” or help nature on my inherited family cottage plot, try to help bees birds and native wildflowers.
The UK population is growing at such a rate, and the amount of development that requires to accomodate them means that the ability to link areas important for wildlife habitat are fast disappearing. Rewilding is fine, but few people are addressing the issue of population growth.
@@blue2mato312 well done for all that you do. I share your frustration with politicians who don't care about the environment - our government only cares about making themselves money. We have badgers who are protected by law and yet the government is intent on exterminating them! They have already killed half the population supposedly to protect dairy farmers from TB in cattle despite a mountain of evidence from scientists that badgers aren't spreading TB. Sorry that's my rant - don't get me started on their treatment of foxes! Good luck with your cottage it sounds lovely.
@@pauldurkee4764 the real issue of immigration you mean. Native British people have children at a rate of 1.54 children per woman, if we never had immigration from Labour and Blair years our population would be down between 50-55m people. We would be knocking down whole housing estates and there would be plenty of land for nature to reclaim, so do please blame the 10-15m immigrants we have let destroy our country...
Where i live everyone received a questionnaire from our local council about if we wanted them to re-release beavers down here. So every area this is a success in is one step closer to us having them locally. They would help so much with local flooding.
Congratulations!!! Beavers are really cool critters. Here in the states where I live they are numerous enough to have become pest of sorts flooding farmland and the occasional road. I agree with the beavers, we have to many roads😊.
We've had beavers on the Napa River in the heart of the Napa Valley, California, for several years. Not many people knew they were there, but I loved watching them. The next year they had been relocated elsewhere, but they're back on the stream again, and I think they plan on staying. Great fun to watch!
From Pennsylvania, I love to watch people, organisations trying to help nature and animals. Humans have been so destructive to our planet Earth. Now it's time to give back to Mother Earth.
This is fantastic! It’s funny,I thought that Beavers were only a new world,North American species! It makes me happy to be proven wrong,and I love seeing them in their new home in Ealing🥰
Kudos from the Adirondacks, NYS. On valuing beavers. One question, how many trees are you going to be willing to lose before they become unwanted again.?
Bigger and bigger things like this are going to define the second half of this century, this is only the beginning. Congratulations to all who worked on the project!
Just wonderful. I was in tears watching this. Of course beavers should not be in enclosures! Beavers without borders! Quite apart from their importance in the ecosystem, they are such appealing and attractive animals, it would be so good if more people could encounter them. ❤
Of course I agree with you entirely Annie, the way they work as a family dynamic is very special too. Mating for life and older kits caring for the younger ones :)
Wow, great video. I'm lucky enough to live within a couple miles of several wild beaver lodges in woods around 100 years old (it was almost all farmland here in southern Maine). It's interesting to see which tree species they're bringing down (or girdle) and when- and which they harvest for food. I love them so. We also have a lot of muskrats- fun fact, they're the only mammal with a tail flattened in the bilateral plane of the body (the opposite* of the beaver tail). *edit: Rather, at a right angle
Another fun fact is that providing the lodge is big enough with enough chambers, beavers will share a part of their lodges with Muskrats in the winter.
@@snowysnowyriver Thanks for sharing that nugget! Now I want to learn more about muskrats, as all I currently have is a recollection of"Musky" in the Deputy Dawg cartoons.
@@martinraeside There is quite a lot out there about Beavers and Muskrats sharing a lodge. In northern areas where it gets very cold and the water ices over, Muskrats bring their extra warmth to the lodge, in exchange Beavers are big enough and strong enough to break the ice so Muskrats can get out. They both bring vegetation back to the lodge. I saw one video where a wildlife sanctuary had placed a camera inside the lodge and it could be seen that Beavers and Muskrats were sharing the food that they both foraged and stored. This extract is typical of info out there.... "Nature Notebook - Beaver and Muskrat Coexistence. The marsh at Sarett’s Brown Sanctuary is the setting for two animal species “helping” each other. Muskrats and beavers prefer to live in wetland areas where the water level stays constant. Beavers can build dams to ensure a steady water depth. Muskrats can’t. Their territory benefits from the beaver’s presence. Muskrats, with their small, slender bodies, can easily navigate the cattail forest that grows in a marsh. The much larger beaver cannot. As the muskrats feed on cattails they clear channels that the beaver can easily navigate. Both of the rodents build lodges using marsh materials. Muskrats pile up plants, such as cattails, and add a bit of mud to hold everything together. Beavers use a lot of mud to glue branch pieces together. Occasionally a muskrat may take up residence in a beaver dam. Since another pair of watchful eyes is always welcome, the muskrat’s presence is tolerated by the beaver family. Although both species are both active in the evening they stay out of each other’s way. Muskrats sit on their feeding platforms munching on plants collected in the marsh. Beavers move to the shore, take down trees surrounding the marsh then munch on the delectable branches and twigs."
Epic work. All part of fixing our broken Britain. You're right about having to find ways of releasing them into the wild. I'm from Manchester and nearest beavers to me were released into an enclosure at Hatchmere, in Delamere Forest, Cheshire. They were brought in because the Wildlife Trust was seeking SSSI status for the area but had been denied because of poor water quality. The beavers set about their business and rapidly ticked the clean water box, while having 2 sets of pups. Pretty soon there will be too many in the enclosure - meaning that either pups will have to be removed to be paired up with other pups from around the country (and broadening the gene pool into the bargain) or the fence comes down. This is an issue that all of the project enclosures around the country will have to face at some point and I just hope we have the right government, capable of making the right decision. It was really good to see a senior politician onboard with you in Ealing.
@@LeaveCurious - sadly, it's not usually the likes of us that make the decisions. I don't think we're quite there yet as a country to make this happen ... but we are getting closer
Wonderful, keep up the good work. Here in Canada they were decimated too, but we’re a huge country so they’re now fairly common. Seeing a beaver lodge is not rare, fortunately. They’re also being reintroduced in the Netherlands (where I’m originally from), which is of course very urban and that has led to a few challenging situations but I’m sure it will all work out in the end
Beautifully done! I grew up with beavers everywhere in Michigan (USA) and they're delightful creatures to watch. Two things: Plant more trees than you think you'll ever need, every year, and make sure their watery playground is downstream from your drinking source (giardia on steroids). Michigan is like a leaky sieve with water; trees grow like grass there. So in that respect beavers and people coexist pretty easily. Also, if London is anywhere as dangerous as Detroit you may want to consider strict protection laws and some form of CCTV. People are always worse than you think they'll be (but it works the other way too). Good luck! And good work!
We already have a law in place protecting beavers here in the UK. It was passed a few years ago when it became clear that the first reintroductions were a huge success. It is illegal here to harm, trap or kill a beaver. Where there are a lot per square mile ( in some areas of Scotland) landowners can apply for a short and very limited licence to thin the population. The parameters of that are very strict. Unfortunately, there will always be thugs everywhere who will ignore the law and target animals just for the chance to be cruel.
@@snowysnowyriverIt's great to hear the first part; unfortunately expected to hear the last. A good compromise would be a short and very limited licence to thin out our own population. 😉 Okay maybe not, but super strict, enforced consequences for morons would be beautiful to see anywhere. (note to legitimate, responsible hunters: I'm not referring to you) I currently live in Florida and although the state's government is failing as a whole, the one promising thing to happen lately is that animal cruelty of any kind has become a felony. Let's hope that part of my state's legislation continues to spread nationally. As for the UK I kind of feel like a dope. Of course you've got all your legal ducks in a row -- I should have researched a little before casually commenting. I was just so happy to see something positive for a change I got a little carried away.☺
@@velocita6907 There are a lot of bad people in the world, but it works the other way too. This video is an example of a win for the good. Our area of the country is suspicious by default. Historically speaking there's been good reason, and at the end of the day we're just being protective helicopter neighbors. 😅
@@CleoHarperReturns Don't feel like a "dope"!! Thank you for caring about our beavers. 💖🙂. The only reason our legal beavers (sorry, ducks! 😆) are in a row is because of tireless and passionate people like The Beaver Trust. Some of these people have made it their goal in life to bring back beavers and protect them. I saw an interview with one guy who had been working 30 years (!!) for this. All we can do now is hang on tight and hope it continues to be successful. 🤞
@leavecurious do you know about the other London beavers located at Forty Hall Farm in Enfield? A pair was released there in 2022 and had one kit last year.
And they can reduce your woodland to a lot of sharp, lethal stakes in a matter of days. Adorable? No. Important to rewind waterways and restore wetlands? Yes.
Well I think that's fun and wonderful. Love beavers have lived around them for years, (I'm Canadian). Be prepared though, they don't follow instructions, take out a park trees that perhaps they shouldn't, and create a few impromptu flooded roads.
Are these European Beavers or North American Beavers??. They are two different species that can not interbreed: "Although the Eurasian beaver appears superficially similar to the North American beaver, there are several important differences, chief among these being that the North American beaver has 40 chromosomes, while the Eurasian beaver has 48. The two species are not genetically compatible. After more than 27 attempts in Russia to hybridise the two species, the result was one stillborn kit that was bred from the pairing of a male North American beaver and a female Eurasian beaver. The difference in chromosome count makes interspecific breeding unlikely in areas where the two species' ranges overlap." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_beaver Starting in 1937, North American Beavers were introduced into Europe. At that time period it was believed both beavers were subspecies but it was later determined they are two different species. Where North American Beavers come into contract with European Beavers. tne North American beavers push out the European Beavers (And today there is a push to remove North American Beavers from Europe). "Because the Eurasian beaver did not survive after the original introductions in areas where both beaver species were present, it is assumed that the spread of the NA beaver is a threat for the Eurasian beaver." link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-019-01919-9 They are other differences, mostly reflecting that the North American Beaver evolved in an area of deep forests, while the European Beaver evolved in an area of more open forests (i.e. less trees in Europe then in North America and more grasslands in Europe then in Eastern North America.
Mostly do they come from Norway and Scandinavia. Norway first protected beavers in 1845, after that on and off until 1924 when there was a national protection on them. In Sweden and Finland was they instinct until they were reintroduced with beavers from Norway. Around 70 000 beavers in Norway. I live in Oslo and we have beavers on the outskirts of the city. And we have lots of trees in Finland, Norway and Sweden.
they are in DC, and they cut down a few of the famous Japanese Cherry Trees!!!! AUGH! But, no one was upset, because the beavers do so much good for the environment. But if they can pick the WRONG tree to cut down they will, because they appreciate good trees also!
Very excited to see how this goes. I'm hoping it means sometime soon that we can release all the beavers in penned areas across the country out into the actual wild. Given the UK's problems with flooding and future issues with drought, I really hope policy makers note the money they could save on defences/clean ups by using natural solutions instead.
Twenty years ago I lived in rural upstate New York. A family nearby observed evidence that a family of beavers had moved into the stream that went through their sunken back garden. Numerous neighbors advised buying a .22 rifle, dealing with the beavers, and telling nobody. The dear souls, enamored of the cute beavers asked the NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation for advice. They were told that the beavers were protected with dire penalties for interfering with the cute little guys. This resulted in the entire first floor of their house being submerged.
Oregon in the US, is the Beaver State. A Beaver graces our State flag. I was enthralled as a city dweller to see beavers on my brother’s costal properties. He was less happy because they flooded two of his prime pastures! He also had to keep clearing out a dam that they built near the culvert that kept storm water from washing out the road to the home place.😊
I wonder if anyone has sequenced the DNA of European beavers and North American beavers? How closely are they still related to each other because dang they look exactly alike but the populations have to have been separated for millions of years.
The toxicity of waterways and soil around London are a challenge aren’t they? I’m sure all those amazing scientists have assessed the situation prior to each planned release. Such a brilliant idea! Now for some forests!! 🦋✨
I absolutely love this but I have a nagging question. What happens if the beavers breed and there are then too many for what appears to be quite a small area? Will they be culled? Most humans only seem happy to have wildlife around provided there is no encroachment on “our” land and activities. I wish I didn’t have such a cynical view of humanity, but our track record is pretty darned poor. Having said that, I really admire what people like you are doing and would love to be involved in some sort of rewilding project. Thank you for another beautiful video 💚
"if politicians take nature conservation seriously..." :D c'mon, you're talking about politicians. for them only one thing counts: staying in power. they don't care about nature at all.
If enough people demand it from their politicians it can change. But you are right there’s always so much difficulties with politics and politicians, speaking from my own country Norway where there is too little will politically to protect our predators (a lot has to do with the political power of the farmers and their party). Now perhaps the story of the beaver was the one exception to the rule, but sometimes private citizens can be the start and cause of successful conservation and saving a species. There was one man, a wealthy landowner in Norway in the area the last beavers lived who started to save beavers on his land in the middle of the 19th century. By the end of the century seeing that the beaver was exctinct almost everywhere in Europe and we still had them mainly thanks to this man they became fully protected before the start of the 20th century. They have since the early 20th century been set out in Norway and shipped out to be released in other countries. For instance all of Swedens thriving beaver population came from early release from our Norwegian ones, and we are still sending them out to Scotland and other countries.
The Beaver Trust are so good at what they do that there is no excuse not to have a natural dispersal of beavers throughout the UK. They will gravitate towards the areas where they are needed the most because it's their instinct to build and rebuild. The legal legislation is already in place making beavers a protected species. It's a no-brainer. The Beaver Trust will relocate to more suitable areas those beavers which cause a problem. The bottom line is that we need these incredible, intelligent and beautiful creatures to repair the damage humans have done over the past 400 years.
BTW: If those beavers are like the ones in North America, the older set of kids will get kicked out of the home pond soon and have to go find a new place. Beavers do this sort of thing so they spread out and don't inbreed. I assume there is space for this to happen. If not you may have to move some beavers out in a few years time. Note that I am just assuming they do will and breed a new generation next year.
I didnt know that beavers were a native species, i thought they were a north american species. I just think of Australia with all the non native animals that have caused them soooooooooooo much trouble!
I'm glad to see something like this. It might look like There's many steps ahead, but you can't get anywhere if you miss a step, either the first, the last, or in between, each is as important as the others
@@arthur1670 they generally relocate young beavers to new areas if numbers increase too much in one area. Hopefully, one day we can bring back some natural predators to restore our ecosystem fully.
This is amazing. Great work to all those involved. Gives me real hope for the future of the UK's ecology, which, lets face it, is abysmal. If the government and big business were more interested in giving back rather than what they can take and make profit from we'd be set. Keep up the pressure.
Amazing news! In the Western US, beavers are making quite a comeback and a common site along the river where I grew up. Aside from chewing some big trees, which can be protected with chicken wire, they don't cause much damage in comparison to the wetlands they regenerate.
They should get rid of the trash in the streets instead! I visited London recently. First time I was there. Wow! I couldn't believe it. It was FILTHY! Release the beavers on London's streets instead.
@@LeaveCurious.. I greatly approve of what you are doing, but with respect,we need more than 'symbolism', we need honest government commitment to saving what little we have left, and with a probable next labour government committed to, 'bulldozing through planning restrictions to build `more housing (their words not mine),what do you think the chances are?
Be careful what you wish for. As a Canadian, my bet is before long, beavers in the UK will be considered a pest, as their engineering projects obstruct some favourite park or pond. I love watching beavers beavering around felling trees, dragging them to build their dams and changing the landscape. Canada has enough wild areas to support the building their dams and flooded areas, but land is at a premium in the over-populated UK.
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why is everyone whispering
50 years ago I got excited seeing beaver's in playboy magazine,,but now they don't seem to interest me .
to keep a calm environment for the beavers. mostly before they were reintroduced and in the cages. @@terryfrederickson2774
Hey! you gotta turn your plant in the background, the thousand year oak or what ever its called in english! :)
How this goes is crucial. If this proves successful there is no reason why other urban areas such as rural villages like mine couldn't start to look at reintroducing beavers. Our council is looking at expensive flood controls upriver but perhaps this is more the answer. We are a natural wetland area and have freshwater wetlands which is apparently quite rare. Unfortunately, we have a Conservative council that doesn't see the value of nature despite the fact we are rural communities!
Oh yeah beavers offer so many important services. We can control where they go, it’s really a no brainer
There's nothing natural or reintroduced in this video. They're in a trapped pond enclosure in the middle of a city like a zoo exhibit.
A conservative council should see the appeal of beavers as low cost flood control. If you already have wetlands it is likely beavers could greatly improve their quality which would be desirable as well.
you get what you vote for, when it comes to councils.
Yeah until they flood the area lol... Classic
Great to see Sadiq Khan and councillors showing their support on Twitter in recent months and spreading the news, other politicians need to get onboard.
As a Canadian, I'm a bit biased, but I think that you should set the beavers free. There was a city in California that had 'problem' beavers. Then they had a wildfire, and the area behind the beaver occupied land didn't burn because the beavers created a fire break. Beavers slow flood waters, enrich the soil by adding moisture, diversify species, and are cute as hell. There are ways to balance the problems beavers can cause without removing them from the land and they more than make up for what little trouble they cause.
Fascinating to see the shift in perspective towards urban and rural spaces not needing to be kept separate. There's no reason why urban spaces can't have wild natural areas, nor for greens and greys to blend seamlessly together.
Conservation restoration is essential for our future. I’m a KIWI from down under (NZ) and support your amazing work bring inspirational stories of hope
I live in Calgary, Canada. I'm used to having beavers in our city river, ponds, waterways, etc.
There will be many challenges and benefits from having beavers.
This is awesome! I lived in Scotland for my entire life and regularly heard of the beaver rewilding project since I lived by the river Tay. Never got to see one in real life though, not even when I visited the Highland Wildlife Park.
Fast forward to this past summer when I first moved over to Canada and got to see my first beaver when I went kayaking in rural Quebec. One of the coolest-looking animals I have ever seen!
Since then, I have gotten to see a whole range of animals that once lived in Scotland. Bison, moose, bears, wolves, eagles and lynx amongst others. It is such an interesting experience to see how well Canadians are able to live alongside all these different sorts of creatures. From raccoons and skunks in urban cities to bighorn sheep and wolverines in the mountains, it seems there is infrastructure to deal with whatever nature presents. The UK has a lot to answer for in our pursuit to turn our country into a glorified front lawn, but it just shows what we could be like if we all took the time to think about how our nation is currently.
I am from the South of Germany. I really hope we will be part of this too, we have many old waters that are drying up during summer… this would be perfect, since the landscape is right next to the Rhine river and used to be like that before human intervention
The county of Rosenheim, Bavaria, has around 750 beavers ... with mixed results as some farmers claim to much damage ...
There are already growing populations of wild beavers in many parts of Germany. A friend of mine had to go around one on a bike path in his village in Hessen and on a Kajak trip I personally saw small trees which were chewed off by beavers. They are at home in the wild again, here. Eventually, they will also conquer your river system and your region, if there are suitable habitats.
We have a beaver project in Shrewsbury to they are building the habitat as we speak.
Well done everyone. Great to see your hard work accomplished. We need more kindhearted caring people in the world. Some good news for once.
These good stories are certainly out there!
well i have conserns, do the people actually know what they signed up for. beavers will nost just swip around and be fun public atractins, beavers have need to build, they cut down trees for that what is they normal behaviourm they also eat treebark. And this samll clousyre will be too small and too civilized for them. Next thouse people are going to see beavers as problem and they destroy they home and familys. Dont use animals for experiments.
This is what happens when libs want to see some beaver bro ... Your absolutely correct they haven't thought far past just releasing them .. They will wreck shit as someone sho owns 800 acres in Maine in the woods ..they make lakes here lol .. Hope they have full time ppl to fix what there gonna build and bust ..maybe they did think but what you think vs what they think is going to be different
The enclosure can support more beavers than currently reside there. I am a volunteer on the project.
I'm currently a third year ecology and conservation student at the University of Brighton and these are kind of things I would love to work on when I graduate
Ah awesome. Get networking I’m sure there’s plenty of ways you can help out with projects like this now.
Congratulation from this Canadian. I'm positive you will find this move to be very rewarding. But be warned it may not always go to plan. Beavers like humans are dedicated ecosystem engineers & sometimes their 'improvements' are not always compatible with human needs. So as long as you can tolerate the occasional loss of a favourite tree or flooded roadway, enjoy!
I, too, am Canadian, and you made the comment I was thinking :) I love beavers, but they can be troublesome. I really hope this works out!
The annoyances like high water are easily handled. A big overflow pipe sitting on top of their dam wall with cages on the ends limits the water height. A small inconvenience and I hope we see more countries following Canada's and other country's lead.
@@tepidtuna7450 I think they should know all this by now as they have reintroduced beavers in other parts of the UK so should have acquired enough knowledge on the issue. I hope they have done their research properly. 🤞
@@jujutrini8412good point re research. We are a small overcrowded country and now planning more new towns to be built. We are not Norway or Canada with plenty of space.
Nice to see a comment from someone else who has seen the negatives beavers can bring.
this is so exciting! we're restoring a half acre of beaver habitat in Oregon USA and we're happy to get to support our wetland friends. they're treated like pests and it makes us more determined to protect the family that's made a home with us.
We have them in East Devon too! Well done everyone and wishing the Beavers happiness in their new home.
What wonderful wild beavers you have in Devon!
We have also in Dorset
Excellent! They released Beavers in my towns loch, they've been busy.
Oh wow haha. At 8:10 the orange tshirt seems to have a VERY interested party swoon and hang on each utterance. It's sweet. I hope they have countless kids 😁❤️
Congratulations from Norway! 🎉 If the beavers are to be back permanently in the UK they must be allowed to disperse freely I think. Not sure what hinders that, if there is too much density of buildings and people or what. I so hope someone acknowledge how Norway saved the beaver and the whitetailed eagle to now repopulate Europe. I think my country badly needs that kind of recognition to counterweight the awful attitude and treatment we struggle with towards our predators. But I am very happy you have beavers back! They do disperse themselves here and in Sweden (we gave the first to them a long time ago) not needing humans anymore to do it for them. Good luck London Beavers 🇬🇧🍀🦫🇳🇴💕
Yeah the UK can learn an awful lot from looking at how european countries are managing their relationship with animals! Cheers!
@@LeaveCurious Well so can Norway! I’m very proud of saving these two species and sharing them, but also very worried about our own treatment and attitudes of both politicians and many people (by all means not everyone) towards our wildlife and in particular our predators.
Right now we have a coalition government of our Labour party and the Center party which is essentially a farmers and rural party. Many of us on the left feel betrayed by how this has been bad news for both conserving bogs and wetlands and for our predators, and unfortunately them being unpopular for several other reasons will likely lead to a rightwing government the next time which always does even more damage to nature. These attitudes and the power behind, makes me hope that European recognition for the good things we have managed to do in giving back the beaver and white tailed eagle could help towards more Norwegians standing up for protecting our wildlife while we still have more of it than many other European countries. We could easily have the lynx, wolves, wolverines (and maybe even bears but they need very undisturbed old forest large areas) in greater numbers instead of hunting them because we still have such large areas of nature (we don’t hunt bears btw). Rewilding isn’t a thing here yet. I so wish it was! It’s easier to preserve the little that is left of real old forest ecosystems than create new ones that take centuries.
Norway is in a unique position with our predators, they need mostly only to be left alone and they will increase. Sorry for the rants 😅 I follow rewilding in the UK and some projects in continental Europe. I have lived in England a bit as a child and it feels like a part of me. I try to “rewild” or help nature on my inherited family cottage plot, try to help bees birds and native wildflowers.
The UK population is growing at such a rate, and the amount of development that requires to accomodate them means that the ability to link areas important for wildlife habitat are fast disappearing.
Rewilding is fine, but few people are addressing the issue of population growth.
@@blue2mato312 well done for all that you do. I share your frustration with politicians who don't care about the environment - our government only cares about making themselves money. We have badgers who are protected by law and yet the government is intent on exterminating them! They have already killed half the population supposedly to protect dairy farmers from TB in cattle despite a mountain of evidence from scientists that badgers aren't spreading TB. Sorry that's my rant - don't get me started on their treatment of foxes! Good luck with your cottage it sounds lovely.
@@pauldurkee4764 the real issue of immigration you mean. Native British people have children at a rate of 1.54 children per woman, if we never had immigration from Labour and Blair years our population would be down between 50-55m people. We would be knocking down whole housing estates and there would be plenty of land for nature to reclaim, so do please blame the 10-15m immigrants we have let destroy our country...
You are all so inspirational. Shame those in charge do not want this to carry on :(
Where i live everyone received a questionnaire from our local council about if we wanted them to re-release beavers down here. So every area this is a success in is one step closer to us having them locally. They would help so much with local flooding.
This is so nice,,, hope you can give us an update on these beavers after a few months.
Congratulations!!! Beavers are really cool critters. Here in the states where I live they are numerous enough to have become pest of sorts flooding farmland and the occasional road. I agree with the beavers, we have to many roads😊.
We've had beavers on the Napa River in the heart of the Napa Valley, California, for several years. Not many people knew they were there, but I loved watching them. The next year they had been relocated elsewhere, but they're back on the stream again, and I think they plan on staying. Great fun to watch!
From Pennsylvania, I love to watch people, organisations trying to help nature and animals. Humans have been so destructive to our planet Earth. Now it's time to give back to Mother Earth.
This is fantastic! It’s funny,I thought that Beavers were only a new world,North American species!
It makes me happy to be proven wrong,and I love seeing them in their new home in Ealing🥰
Thank you what a fabulous project, good to record it!
Kudos from the Adirondacks, NYS. On valuing beavers. One question, how many trees are you going to be willing to lose before they become unwanted again.?
Bigger and bigger things like this are going to define the second half of this century, this is only the beginning. Congratulations to all who worked on the project!
🤞
Just wonderful. I was in tears watching this. Of course beavers should not be in enclosures! Beavers without borders! Quite apart from their importance in the ecosystem, they are such appealing and attractive animals, it would be so good if more people could encounter them. ❤
Of course I agree with you entirely Annie, the way they work as a family dynamic is very special too. Mating for life and older kits caring for the younger ones :)
Love to see this for our city ❤
Proud day for all Londoners!
Wow, great video. I'm lucky enough to live within a couple miles of several wild beaver lodges in woods around 100 years old (it was almost all farmland here in southern Maine). It's interesting to see which tree species they're bringing down (or girdle) and when- and which they harvest for food. I love them so. We also have a lot of muskrats- fun fact, they're the only mammal with a tail flattened in the bilateral plane of the body (the opposite* of the beaver tail).
*edit: Rather, at a right angle
Another fun fact is that providing the lodge is big enough with enough chambers, beavers will share a part of their lodges with Muskrats in the winter.
That’s really cool! I’d love to visit!
@@snowysnowyriver Thanks for sharing that nugget! Now I want to learn more about muskrats, as all I currently have is a recollection of"Musky" in the Deputy Dawg cartoons.
@@martinraeside There is quite a lot out there about Beavers and Muskrats sharing a lodge. In northern areas where it gets very cold and the water ices over, Muskrats bring their extra warmth to the lodge, in exchange Beavers are big enough and strong enough to break the ice so Muskrats can get out. They both bring vegetation back to the lodge. I saw one video where a wildlife sanctuary had placed a camera inside the lodge and it could be seen that Beavers and Muskrats were sharing the food that they both foraged and stored.
This extract is typical of info out there....
"Nature Notebook - Beaver and Muskrat Coexistence.
The marsh at Sarett’s Brown Sanctuary is the setting for two animal species “helping” each other. Muskrats and beavers prefer to live in wetland areas where the water level stays constant. Beavers can build dams to ensure a steady water depth. Muskrats can’t. Their territory benefits from the beaver’s presence. Muskrats, with their small, slender bodies, can easily navigate the cattail forest that grows in a marsh. The much larger beaver cannot. As the muskrats feed on cattails they clear channels that the beaver can easily navigate. Both of the rodents build lodges using marsh materials. Muskrats pile up plants, such as cattails, and add a bit of mud to hold everything together. Beavers use a lot of mud to glue branch pieces together. Occasionally a muskrat may take up residence in a beaver dam. Since another pair of watchful eyes is always welcome, the muskrat’s presence is tolerated by the beaver family. Although both species are both active in the evening they stay out of each other’s way. Muskrats sit on their feeding platforms munching on plants collected in the marsh. Beavers move to the shore, take down trees surrounding the marsh then munch on the delectable branches and twigs."
Only mammal with a flat tail?
Whales, dolphins, porpoises would like a word with you.
Epic work. All part of fixing our broken Britain. You're right about having to find ways of releasing them into the wild. I'm from Manchester and nearest beavers to me were released into an enclosure at Hatchmere, in Delamere Forest, Cheshire. They were brought in because the Wildlife Trust was seeking SSSI status for the area but had been denied because of poor water quality. The beavers set about their business and rapidly ticked the clean water box, while having 2 sets of pups. Pretty soon there will be too many in the enclosure - meaning that either pups will have to be removed to be paired up with other pups from around the country (and broadening the gene pool into the bargain) or the fence comes down. This is an issue that all of the project enclosures around the country will have to face at some point and I just hope we have the right government, capable of making the right decision. It was really good to see a senior politician onboard with you in Ealing.
My vote is the fence comes down!!
@@LeaveCurious - sadly, it's not usually the likes of us that make the decisions. I don't think we're quite there yet as a country to make this happen ... but we are getting closer
Always nice to hear the Irish accent. Well done lads and lassies 😂😂😂
Love it! Hope some day beavers will be re-introduced to Wales too!
Wonderful, keep up the good work. Here in Canada they were decimated too, but we’re a huge country so they’re now fairly common. Seeing a beaver lodge is not rare, fortunately. They’re also being reintroduced in the Netherlands (where I’m originally from), which is of course very urban and that has led to a few challenging situations but I’m sure it will all work out in the end
How exciting!!Blessings that it
is a complete success ❤❤❤
Beautifully done! I grew up with beavers everywhere in Michigan (USA) and they're delightful creatures to watch. Two things: Plant more trees than you think you'll ever need, every year, and make sure their watery playground is downstream from your drinking source (giardia on steroids). Michigan is like a leaky sieve with water; trees grow like grass there. So in that respect beavers and people coexist pretty easily. Also, if London is anywhere as dangerous as Detroit you may want to consider strict protection laws and some form of CCTV. People are always worse than you think they'll be (but it works the other way too). Good luck! And good work!
I was thinking the same thing regarding the protection laws....perhaps our mistrust of people is an American thing, I'm from Chicago.
We already have a law in place protecting beavers here in the UK. It was passed a few years ago when it became clear that the first reintroductions were a huge success. It is illegal here to harm, trap or kill a beaver. Where there are a lot per square mile ( in some areas of Scotland) landowners can apply for a short and very limited licence to thin the population. The parameters of that are very strict. Unfortunately, there will always be thugs everywhere who will ignore the law and target animals just for the chance to be cruel.
@@snowysnowyriverIt's great to hear the first part; unfortunately expected to hear the last. A good compromise would be a short and very limited licence to thin out our own population. 😉 Okay maybe not, but super strict, enforced consequences for morons would be beautiful to see anywhere.
(note to legitimate, responsible hunters: I'm not referring to you)
I currently live in Florida and although the state's government is failing as a whole, the one promising thing to happen lately is that animal cruelty of any kind has become a felony. Let's hope that part of my state's legislation continues to spread nationally.
As for the UK I kind of feel like a dope. Of course you've got all your legal ducks in a row -- I should have researched a little before casually commenting. I was just so happy to see something positive for a change I got a little carried away.☺
@@velocita6907 There are a lot of bad people in the world, but it works the other way too. This video is an example of a win for the good. Our area of the country is suspicious by default. Historically speaking there's been good reason, and at the end of the day we're just being protective helicopter neighbors. 😅
@@CleoHarperReturns Don't feel like a "dope"!! Thank you for caring about our beavers. 💖🙂. The only reason our legal beavers (sorry, ducks! 😆) are in a row is because of tireless and passionate people like The Beaver Trust. Some of these people have made it their goal in life to bring back beavers and protect them. I saw an interview with one guy who had been working 30 years (!!) for this. All we can do now is hang on tight and hope it continues to be successful. 🤞
Great video, and great project, thanks for sharing with us
No worries, pleased you enjoyed it
@leavecurious do you know about the other London beavers located at Forty Hall Farm in Enfield? A pair was released there in 2022 and had one kit last year.
Excellent video ! I am very excited to have a beaver release in the nene in the near future.
Thank you and yeah that is exciting!
I've seen a beaver dam in AZ, USA.. they're quite spectacular!
This made international news. Great job !
Great day but tarnished by the presence of the mayor of London
I agree!!!
Love the effort that is being made! Always looking forward to your videos that I instantly click when posted 😁
Ah thank you, really appreciate the support.
Another good news story! Nice work all involved, and well captured Rob!
This is amazing! Beavers are such intelligent creatures, along with being helpful to the environment….and they’re so cute!!
It depends how much you like to have trees in your park. Despite being our national animal they can be a real problem in a park.
Beautiful work all of you do, thanks! 👍💪✌
Much appreciated!
I love this channel so much…
Overjoyed to see beavers coming back! They’re so important, intelligent and adorable 💚🦫
And they can reduce your woodland to a lot of sharp, lethal stakes in a matter of days. Adorable? No. Important to rewind waterways and restore wetlands? Yes.
But they are in a pen for the people to go see them like a zoo !
I really do love your lively reports on what’s going on in the UK wrt. ecology and nature restoration. Keep up the good work.
Well I think that's fun and wonderful. Love beavers have lived around them for years, (I'm Canadian). Be prepared though, they don't follow instructions, take out a park trees that perhaps they shouldn't, and create a few impromptu flooded roads.
Thanks for sharing this with us. You caught some brilliant footage! These beavers are so cute. Would love for their population to grown UK wide.
So does this mean we can get otters, pine marten, and red squirrels now in Greenfords Horseden Hill?
Being from a place where beavers are everywhere and destructive to human made ponds, trees etc… I find this fascinating, lucky beavers!
Love that you got to experience this!
hey cookie, thanks mate. it was a pleasure to be there. what a day!
Great work Rob. Amazing to have beavers back in London.
are you sure it isn't "to London" ?
Are these European Beavers or North American Beavers??. They are two different species that can not interbreed:
"Although the Eurasian beaver appears superficially similar to the North American beaver, there are several important differences, chief among these being that the North American beaver has 40 chromosomes, while the Eurasian beaver has 48. The two species are not genetically compatible. After more than 27 attempts in Russia to hybridise the two species, the result was one stillborn kit that was bred from the pairing of a male North American beaver and a female Eurasian beaver. The difference in chromosome count makes interspecific breeding unlikely in areas where the two species' ranges overlap."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_beaver
Starting in 1937, North American Beavers were introduced into Europe. At that time period it was believed both beavers were subspecies but it was later determined they are two different species.
Where North American Beavers come into contract with European Beavers. tne North American beavers push out the European Beavers (And today there is a push to remove North American Beavers from Europe).
"Because the Eurasian beaver did not survive after the original introductions in areas where both beaver species were present, it is assumed that the spread of the NA beaver is a threat for the Eurasian beaver."
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10530-019-01919-9
They are other differences, mostly reflecting that the North American Beaver evolved in an area of deep forests, while the European Beaver evolved in an area of more open forests (i.e. less trees in Europe then in North America and more grasslands in Europe then in Eastern North America.
Mostly do they come from Norway and Scandinavia. Norway first protected beavers in 1845, after that on and off until 1924 when there was a national protection on them. In Sweden and Finland was they instinct until they were reintroduced with beavers from Norway. Around 70 000 beavers in Norway. I live in Oslo and we have beavers on the outskirts of the city.
And we have lots of trees in Finland, Norway and Sweden.
they are in DC, and they cut down a few of the famous Japanese Cherry Trees!!!! AUGH! But, no one was upset, because the beavers do so much good for the environment. But if they can pick the WRONG tree to cut down they will, because they appreciate good trees also!
I'm so happy about this! It's in my local area! I need to see what I can do to get involved!
Very excited to see how this goes. I'm hoping it means sometime soon that we can release all the beavers in penned areas across the country out into the actual wild. Given the UK's problems with flooding and future issues with drought, I really hope policy makers note the money they could save on defences/clean ups by using natural solutions instead.
Twenty years ago I lived in rural upstate New York. A family nearby observed evidence that a family of beavers had moved into the stream that went through their sunken back garden. Numerous neighbors advised buying a .22 rifle, dealing with the beavers, and telling nobody. The dear souls, enamored of the cute beavers asked the NYS Dept of Environmental Conservation for advice. They were told that the beavers were protected with dire penalties for interfering with the cute little guys. This resulted in the entire first floor of their house being submerged.
Beavers can cause unwanted flooding. The solution? Trap and move to a more suitable area.
Oregon in the US, is the Beaver State. A Beaver graces our State flag. I was enthralled as a city dweller to see beavers on my brother’s costal properties. He was less happy because they flooded two of his prime pastures! He also had to keep clearing out a dam that they built near the culvert that kept storm water from washing out the road to the home place.😊
Beavers are doing what they're supposed to. People aren't. The wise man built his house upon the rocks.
Love what you guys do. Helps rekindle my hope that us humans are not as destructive as we seem!
I wonder if anyone has sequenced the DNA of European beavers and North American beavers? How closely are they still related to each other because dang they look exactly alike but the populations have to have been separated for millions of years.
This is so amazing! I love what you do guys, keep it going!
The toxicity of waterways and soil around London are a challenge aren’t they? I’m sure all those amazing scientists have assessed the situation prior to each planned release. Such a brilliant idea! Now for some forests!! 🦋✨
I absolutely love this but I have a nagging question. What happens if the beavers breed and there are then too many for what appears to be quite a small area? Will they be culled? Most humans only seem happy to have wildlife around provided there is no encroachment on “our” land and activities. I wish I didn’t have such a cynical view of humanity, but our track record is pretty darned poor. Having said that, I really admire what people like you are doing and would love to be involved in some sort of rewilding project. Thank you for another beautiful video 💚
"if politicians take nature conservation seriously..." :D
c'mon, you're talking about politicians. for them only one thing counts: staying in power. they don't care about nature at all.
I understand. Environmental goals shouldn’t be set if necessary changes aren’t being made to meet them!
If enough people demand it from their politicians it can change. But you are right there’s always so much difficulties with politics and politicians, speaking from my own country Norway where there is too little will politically to protect our predators (a lot has to do with the political power of the farmers and their party).
Now perhaps the story of the beaver was the one exception to the rule, but sometimes private citizens can be the start and cause of successful conservation and saving a species. There was one man, a wealthy landowner in Norway in the area the last beavers lived who started to save beavers on his land in the middle of the 19th century. By the end of the century seeing that the beaver was exctinct almost everywhere in Europe and we still had them mainly thanks to this man they became fully protected before the start of the 20th century. They have since the early 20th century been set out in Norway and shipped out to be released in other countries. For instance all of Swedens thriving beaver population came from early release from our Norwegian ones, and we are still sending them out to Scotland and other countries.
The Beaver Trust are so good at what they do that there is no excuse not to have a natural dispersal of beavers throughout the UK. They will gravitate towards the areas where they are needed the most because it's their instinct to build and rebuild. The legal legislation is already in place making beavers a protected species. It's a no-brainer. The Beaver Trust will relocate to more suitable areas those beavers which cause a problem. The bottom line is that we need these incredible, intelligent and beautiful creatures to repair the damage humans have done over the past 400 years.
BTW: If those beavers are like the ones in North America, the older set of kids will get kicked out of the home pond soon and have to go find a new place. Beavers do this sort of thing so they spread out and don't inbreed. I assume there is space for this to happen. If not you may have to move some beavers out in a few years time.
Note that I am just assuming they do will and breed a new generation next year.
Wonderful!!! Thank you for this content.
You’re very welcome. Thanks for supporting the channel!
Since beavers can live in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island then they should do very well in London.
I hope they do really well! ❤
As a Canadian I fully support beavers.
Great video Rob! Hope to have some more beavers down here in Cornwall too one day!
I am all for it.
Beautiful to see ❤
Love to see it, happy that big things are happening for you
It was pleasure to be there!
Does this pond have access to running water like a stream?
Yes, it's fed by a brook.
Lovely story! My thoughts are too long to go into here and I wish you and them all the best! 🙂
Thank you so much!
This is a really big step for conversation
Well done to everyone involved
It certainly is :)
It's a zoo enclosure in a city.
I didnt know that beavers were a native species, i thought they were a north american species. I just think of Australia with all the non native animals that have caused them soooooooooooo much trouble!
They are native but were hunted to extinction.
Haven’t watched yet but Ik it will be a great vid!
Appreciate the support :)
I'm glad to see something like this. It might look like There's many steps ahead, but you can't get anywhere if you miss a step, either the first, the last, or in between, each is as important as the others
Excellent work, thank you !
but the only problem is stupid councils have allowed people and still allow people to build in the flood plane.......
the loss of wetlands in the UK is something we must tackle, beavers can of course help do this.
@@LeaveCurious totally agree but they will have to be managed because of factors on the ground
@@arthur1670 they generally relocate young beavers to new areas if numbers increase too much in one area. Hopefully, one day we can bring back some natural predators to restore our ecosystem fully.
Fantastic!! Such an exciting step!
This is amazing. Great work to all those involved. Gives me real hope for the future of the UK's ecology, which, lets face it, is abysmal. If the government and big business were more interested in giving back rather than what they can take and make profit from we'd be set. Keep up the pressure.
Yeah, rewilding is only happening thanks to dedicated individuals work hard, often battling to make it work. This must change!
This video makes me HAPPY!!!! 💙💚
This is amazing and very inspiring, hope to seem some beavers in person one day!
Amazing news! In the Western US, beavers are making quite a comeback and a common site along the river where I grew up. Aside from chewing some big trees, which can be protected with chicken wire, they don't cause much damage in comparison to the wetlands they regenerate.
They should get rid of the trash in the streets instead! I visited London recently. First time I was there.
Wow! I couldn't believe it. It was FILTHY!
Release the beavers on London's streets instead.
Yes let them free , they help floods prevention ,nature has the key
Well done !
An ecstatic moment for sure. May their legacy go on into infinity.
Well done to you all! Welcome 🦫!
England once had miles of fens and swamps. The reason for the shrinking over time was due in large part to beavers being locally extinct.
Sadly as we bury the countryside under concrete and tarmac this is a hollow gesture, and a paper tissue for a gaping wound.
In the scale of the country's environmental issues, it may feel like that. But this project important for what it symbolises.
@@LeaveCurious.. I greatly approve of what you are doing, but with respect,we need more than 'symbolism', we need honest government commitment to saving what little we have left, and with a probable next labour government committed to, 'bulldozing through planning restrictions to build `more housing (their words not mine),what do you think the chances are?
Great job guys.
amazing stuff
Be careful what you wish for. As a Canadian, my bet is before long, beavers in the UK will be considered a pest, as their engineering projects obstruct some favourite park or pond. I love watching beavers beavering around felling trees, dragging them to build their dams and changing the landscape. Canada has enough wild areas to support the building their dams and flooded areas, but land is at a premium in the over-populated UK.