England has now reintroduced its first ‘official’ wild beavers.<\/p>\n
Video documentation\u00a0of a beaver colony in Devon<\/a> in southwestern England had first surfaced in January 2014. Although reports of these beavers had been made since at least 2013, the British authorities could not ignore the new proof of beavers living wild in England.<\/p>\n The governmental agencies became concerned that the beavers might pose a risk since the animals\u00a0had been released there illegally, i.e. no one had gotten a permit for the release and gone through the veterinarian and\u00a0risk assessment protocols. The early statements by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) indicated that there were concerns about the genetic background of the animals (Were they from Bavaria instead of Scandinavia like the beavers in the Scotland trial? Or even from Canada?) as well as their potential to carry the\u00a0Echinococcus multilocularis<\/em> parasite. DEFRA’s position was that the beavers should be caught and killed.<\/p>\n As you can imagine, a public outcry ensued<\/a> about the potential beaver cull. In January 2015, Natural England issued a permit to the Devon Wildlife Trust <\/a>to conduct a 5-year reintroduction trial with the wild beavers. DWT\u00a0was still required to\u00a0capture the beavers and run veterinarian checks on them. Five\u00a0beavers were captured in March and tests showed that (1) they are Castor fiber<\/em> (rather than the North American beaver Castor canadensis<\/em>) and (2) were free from\u00a0Tularaemia, Echinococcus multilocularis and bovine TB. With these confirmations, the beavers meet the Natural England permit requirements. The beavers were released back into the wild<\/a> on 24-25 March 2015.<\/p>\n