From The Guardian Wildcats, storks and beavers: my stay on a Devon rewilding farm
Rewilding + glamping holidays and day trips in the UK
- Thread starter gentle lemur
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I'm presuming his beavers aren't actually living unenclosed- the article doesn't make it quite clear. Afaik the River Otter ones are the only free-livers so far in England?
I read about free living beavers in Devon (or was it Dorset) not long ago. It was possible to book a guide to see them, and apparently otters were often seen too. It interested me in that there is also a hide for badgers down that way, if we are ever allowed to visit the UK again it seemed like an opportunity to see three, for an Australian, unusual mammals.
I believe that the best known site for free-living beavers in the south-west is on the river Otter in South Devon, but there may be more.
That was it.
The beavers on the river Otter are the only truly free-living ones in England afaik. All the others are so far kept in natural-type enclosures. I've seen the 'safari-type' offer to see them, I don't know what their success rate is as they are very nocturnal. Otters are rather hit & miss too, even if you know where to look. I would imagine badgers would be 100% reliable sightings though.
When I went to the Birdfair in 2019, I attended a talk about the beaver reintroduction in England which included a map of all the fenced, licensed and unlicensed releases of beavers. As well as the population on the River Otter, there were at least three unlicensed free-living releases of beavers in Kent and also one in the Somerset Levels. However, I'm not sure how many individuals were involved in each release or whether they have begun to establish themselves.