Two months ago the Scottish Beaver Trial, a partnership project run by Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT), the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and host partner Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS), officially began. After an absence of 400 years beavers were returned to the wild in Scotland.
Three beaver families were released at carefully selected sites in Knapdale Forest, Mid-Argyll, and observation and tracking began immediately. A family of four was released into Loch Coille Bharr, a family of four into Loch Linne and the final family of three was released into Creag Mhor Loch. Unfortunately, shortly after release, a juvenile male from the Loch Linne family died. A post-mortem was carried out by independent veterinary professionals but the results were inconclusive. The family at Loch Coille Bharr and the remaining three animals at Loch Linne settled almost immediately and are regularly observed and tracked by field staff and volunteers. All these animals appear to be in good health.
For the first week, the third family at Creag Mhor also appeared to have settled down and they were recorded swimming and feeding as normal. One week later the adult female disappeared. The time of her disappearance coincided with unauthorized shooting heard in the same area. There has been no sign of the animal since and the matter has been reported to the local police for further investigation. The sudden disappearance of the female seemed to unsettle the adult male and he left the original release loch and was located on the Crinan Canal where he remained for several days. He then left the canal and has been recently discovered at Lakeland Marine Farm at Port Na Moine near Kilmartin. Traps have now been put in place and, once captured, the animal will be returned to the original release loch.
The juvenile female, who was left behind when her parents disappeared, remained on Creag Mhor for several weeks. She was then tracked to the Crinan Canal, after possibly following her father’s scent. With agreement from British Waterways, the Scottish Beaver Trial partners decided to trap the juvenile female and take her back to the release loch. However, just as trapping began, she left the canal and her signal has not been picked up since.
Simon Jones, Scottish Beaver Trial Project Manager, said: “These are wild animals and we expected some movement which is one of the reasons why they are monitored so closely. Field staff and volunteers have been working around the clock in an effort to track the missing beavers. Tracking requires a combination of methods including looking for field signs, observing beaver activity, and following radio signals from the transmitters attached to the animals. We will widen our search area to encompass the land where the adult male was found in case the juvenile female follows his scent. Our ongoing search for the adult female will also continue, but it can take time to establish the location of certain individuals as tracking techniques do not always provide instant results.
“We are obviously concerned that there could to be a link between her disappearance and the unauthorized shooting and the local police have been informed. We suspect that the noise from the shooting has disturbed these animals even if no direct link between the shooting and disappearance is found.”
Allan Bantick, Chair of the Scottish Beaver Trial partnership, said: “We are thrilled that two families of beavers have settled into their new surroundings so quickly. I very much hope that the missing female from the third family has not been shot and await the result of the police investigation. In the meantime the trial is fully underway and the scientific monitoring has started in earnest.”