A 400-year long wait

Captured on camera as they swim in a lake, drag pieces of wood to make their dens and play with one another, these are the first beavers to be born in Britain in 400 years.

The enchanting scene is a heartwarming sight for animal lovers as the species was previously extinct in Britain.

The 12 baby beaver ‘kits’ – all from the same mother – were born at the 550-acre Lower Mill Estate near Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

Jeremy Paxton, owner of the estate, brought three pairs of beavers – named Tony and Cherie, Gordon and Sarah and John and Pauline – from Bavaria in 2005.

He has spent almost £1million on the project.

He said: ‘I have always wanted to bring an extinct indigenous species back to Britain.

Source: The Daily Mail

First English beaver dam in 800 years

The medieval clergyman and chronicler Giraldus Cambrensis made the last recording of beavers in Britain in 1188. He said they were only found in one river in Wales and one in Scotland. They were hunted to extinction by the 13th century.

In 2007, staff at the Escot Estate in Ottery St Mary, Devon, created a two-acre home for a pair of European beavers with ponds and woodland along a section of the River Tale.

John-Michael Kennaway of the Escot Esate thinks the beavers might have built their dam, the first in England in 800 years, because they may be breeding.

Over recent years, 15 beavers have been re-introduced to England, but these have lived on lakes and had no need to build a dam.

Source: Mail Online