European Beaver Totally Explained

Everything about The European Beaver totally explained

The European beaver (Castor fiber) is an endangered large aquatic rodent which was hunted almost to extinction in Europe, both for fur and for castoreum, a secretion of its scent gland believed to have medicinal properties.

Biology

Beavers are vegetarian, felling waterside trees to eat their bark and leaves, and eating other wetland vegetation such as the rhizomes of water lilies.
On rivers, the European beaver constructs a dam of mud and sticks to create a lake. It then builds a lodge surrounded by water, like its close relative the American beaver. However, in some areas with natural waterways it doesn't build a dam or lodge, but instead digs tunnels in banks and uses these as underwater entrances to burrows.
The European beaver is usually heavier than its North American relative, weighing up to 35 kg (77 lbs). It is also said to have weaker teeth and lesser reproductive capacity.

Survival

The European beaver survived in the wild in some places in Europe, and several thousand still live on the Elbe, the Rhone, the Danube and in parts of Scandinavia.
In many other places the beaver was hunted to extinction, and it's thought to have been lost from Britain in the sixteenth century.

Reintroduction

European beaver is now being reintroduced to many places throughout Europe.

Mainland Europe

Beavers have been reintroduced in Serbia. Beavers have been re-introduced in Bavaria and The Netherlands and are tending to spread to new locations.
In Sweden the beaver had been hunted to extinction by the end of the nineteenth century. Between 1922 and 1939 approximately eighty individuals were imported from Norway and introduced to nineteen separate sites within the country.
Norwegian beavers also played an important role in reintroducing the then extinct animal to Finland, but there the population also includes a substantial number of C. canadensis of Canadian origin.

Britain

No beavers have yet been officially released into the wild in Britain – legal release would require a licence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, as for all other animals not normally resident in the wild. However, several projects have established beavers in large fenced enclosures, where they live in a near-natural state.
   In 2001 the Wildwood Trust with Kent Wildlife Trust imported two families of European beaver from Norway to manage a wetland nature reserve. The beavers were gifts from the Norwegian Government which would otherwise have formed part of the annual cull. The beavers are living in a 130-acre fenced enclosure at the wetland of Ham Fen. This five-year habitat management trial is being monitored by Oxford University. The monitoring ceased after two months following a delay with the release of the beaver and the drying up of funds.
Six European Beavers were released in 2005 into a fenced lakeside area Gloucestershire.
   In 2007 a specially-selected group of four Bavarian beavers were released into a fenced enclosure in the Martin Mere nature reserve in Lancashire. It is hoped that the beavers will form a permanent colony, and the younger pair will be transferred to another location when the adults begin breeding again. The progress of the group will be followed as part of the BBC's Autumnwatch television series.
   A colony of beavers is established in a large enclosure at Banff, Perthshire.
   A beaver living wild was confirmed in Scotland in early 2007 and was captured. It may have been released illegally.
   In 2005 the Scottish Government turned down a licence application for unfenced reintroduction. However, in late 2007 a further application was made for a release project in Knapdale, Argyle. This application was accepted, and the first beavers will be released in spring 2009

Gallery

Image:Biberschaedel-drawing.jpg|Skull of a beaver (Castor) Image:Biber-drawing.jpg|Eurasian beaver Image:Beaver dam.jpg|A large beaver dam Image:Bevers.jpg|Beavers in captivity

Further Information

Get more info on 'European Beaver'.

External Link Exchanges

Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:

<a href="http://european_beaver.totallyexplained.com">European Beaver Totally Explained</a>

Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned.