BEAVER Castor fiber

The European beaver is Europe’s largest rodent and nature’s hardest worker. A vegetarian, it spends all of its time in or very near water. Beavers often dam rivers in order to regulate water height – this ensures that the entrance to their home or “lodge” is always safely under water, away from predators such as wolf or bear.

An accomplished swimmer, the beaver has webbed feet and a large, flat paddle shaped tail. Its strong front teeth enable it to cut down trees up to a diameter of 1m. The bark is eaten or stored underwater to provide a food source in winter.Beavers were hunted to extinction in Scotland in the 16th century for their thick fur and for castoreum, which is a substance they secrete from their anal glands. Castoreum was used as the base for perfumes and also as the forerunner to aspirin.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland is currently working in partnership with Scottish Wildlife Trust to consider a licence application to reintroduce the beaver to Scotland. Initially this would be on a trial basis in Knapdale, Argyll. If the application process is successful we hope to begin the trial in Spring 2009. For more information please click here.

Our beavers arrived in the Park at the end of October 2002 from Bavaria in south Germany. They have settled in well and have started to adapt their new surroundings to suit. Many of the birch trees in the enclosure have now been protected by wire as the beavers have already felled a number! From the boardwalk, the lodge which they have built is plain to see as a pile of sticks and mud on the bank of their pond. The entrance is underwater and they spend a lot of the day in the lodge. They are fed carrots, fresh willow and other browse when available.