The River Otter Beaver Trial
Devon is home to a fantastic project; The River Otter Beaver Trial run by Devon Wildlife Trust. These amazing creatures are part of a trial scheme looking at beavers Recently announced – the beavers can stay permanently! It has been recently announced that they can now stay, this is fantastic news and shows the good work wildlife trusts perform. That’s it, we now have wild Beavers in England.
Some of the beavers live close to the village of Otterton in Devon. Follow the river downstream (South) from the village for just a few hundred meters at dusk and you stand a good chance of seeing them.
One thing that really surprised me about the beavers was their size, these animals are really big! Once you find one or more of the beavers, if you’re quiet and still they will happily swim up and down gathering food and branches. When I saw the one below it stayed in that section of river for over half an hour just going about it’s business.
If you decide to go and visit the beavers, please be mindful of the residents when you are parking and please keep dogs on leads. The beavers are very tolerant of people, but they are wild animals and it’s always good to try to minimise your impact – don’t get too close and try to be as quiet as possible. Please note down the location if you take any images as you can pass on the tag number and the location to Devon Wildlife Trust to help them monitor their progress.