Call to make beaver boom official

Beavers disappeared from Britain about 400 years ago, after being hunted to extinction for their meat and fur.

But in the past few decades, the semi-aquatic animals have sprung up in fenced enclosures on nature reserves or been found living in rivers through unlicensed releases and escapes.

There are thought to be hundreds of wild beavers living “illegally” in English rivers and more than 1,000 in Scotland.

This summer, beavers were born in enclosures from Ealing, west London, to the Wallington Estate, in Northumberland, on rivers in Canterbury, Kent, and at the Cairngorms, in the Highlands.

Beavers were acknowledged as a native species in England in 2022, paving the way for reintroductions – but no strategy has been announced, despite a three-year consultation and encouraging signs from ministers.

In England, there is one “official” population of beavers, on the river Otter, in Devon, where escapees were given permission to stay.

Elsewhere, wild populations are caught in a “limbo”.