Beavers are now back in
Britain after being hunted
to extinction. A five-year
study in Devon has been
examining the mammal’s
impact on its environment.M
arching over the
bridge in Otterton,
Devon, I steal a
glance to the river
below. It’s mid-
March, and this is
my final excursion
before national lockdown.
Brown and churning, the river scurries
another two miles to Budleigh Salterton,
where it spills into the sea. It’s chilly and
overcast, but spring is well on its way. A
preening mallard murmurs sweet nothings
at the edge of the bank; a bumblebee loses
itself in blackthorn blossom.
Mark Elliott, project lead for Devon
Wildlife Trust’s River Otter Beaver Trial,strides ahead. Delighted, he suddenly
crouches by coppiced aspen – the woody
victim of an unmistakable assailant. A
closer look reveals a repetition of linear
grooves whittled into a now pencil-shaped
stump. “Classic beaver signs,” says Mark.
A host of gnawed branches, felled trees
and stick piles are scattered around the
riverbank, all signs that we’re in beaver
territory. After four centuries bereft of
these native wetland architects, hunted
to extinction in Britain for their fur and
castoreum (an anal secretion used in
perfumes, flavouring and early medicines),
wild beavers are back – hopefully for good.
Today, in this glorious valley, I am
wandering through one of about 17