Second wild beaver spotted living at Norfolk nature reserve | Norfolk

No one knows where they came from or how they ended up in Norfolk. But one thing is certain: now there are two of them.

Until last week, experts thought there was just one wild beaver living at Pensthorpe nature reserve, about 20 miles from Norwich. But just in time for Valentine’s Day, two were filmed late night swimming together and grooming each other by the river.

The couple were the first wild pair to settle in Norfolk since the early 16th century. “We won’t know for sure if they are a breeding pair until the camera shows them having cubs, but they are very bonded and living together and behaving as a family unit,” reserve director Richard Spowage said. “They are clearly wild animals. They don’t interact with us at all, they completely avoid us.”

Images of a lone beaver establishing a lodge on the reserve hit headlines in December when the Guardian revealed it was the first free-living beaver recorded in Norfolk for more than 500 years.

Spowage now suspects both beavers built the “family-sized” lodge, but only one was caught on camera. “Beavers are very difficult to photograph, especially in pairs. »

The native species has been re-establishing itself in the English countryside since 2015, when a litter of feral kittens was born in Devon, but how a pair of beavers managed to make their way to Norfolk remains a mystery.

It’s almost a year since the government decided to grant licenses for wild beaver releases, but so far only two pairs and one family have been legally released, in Cornwall and Somerset earlier this month.

Spowage suspects the beavers were released illegally last year, a practice known as “beaver bombing,” which the reserve does not support. “We don’t condone that, but our view is that now that we have these animals here, playing a role in the ecosystem that our river was lacking, it’s our responsibility to protect them.”

He said he was relieved to discover there was a second beaver, whose age and sex are still unknown. “Beavers live in family groups. They are not bred to be solitary animals.”

In just three months, the animals have removed debris from the river without affecting water levels, Spowage said, adding: “You can now see a nice river bed, with sand and gravel starting to reappear at the base, which is really amazing. They are opening up small clearings along the edge of the river, where they have cut down willows and birches. This will let the sun into the river, encouraging the growth of vegetation and invertebrates and improving fishing.”

Professor George Holmes, who sits on a government advisory group for species reintroduction, said there was “a lot of frustration” among people wanting to release beavers because they felt the permit application process was unnecessarily long and costly.

Beavers’ dams could cause flooding and their burrows could undermine river and stream banks, he said, and once a beaver was released into the wild it was classified as a ordinarily resident species in the UK, with protected status. “Introducing a species is not simple and it can go very wrong.”

But he adds: “In a nature reserve, it [the beaver] won’t pose too many problems.

Spowage would like to see more beavers legally introduced into the Wensum River. “Genetically, you can’t just have one pair of beavers on the river,” he said. “This is our opportunity to bring back to our river system an animal that has been extinct for 500 years.”

Natural England, the government advisory body, said it was investigating reports of beavers in Pensthorpe and was “working closely” with the reserve on the issue.

As well as Cornwall, Somerset, Devon and Kent, wild beavers could also be found in England in Hampshire, Wiltshire and Herefordshire, according to the Beaver Trust, a charity which aims to restore beavers to regenerate landscapes. A Guardian reader also reported seeing one in his Berkshire garden.

Since 2021, the Scottish Government has officially authorized the movement and release of beavers and the population there is estimated at 1,500 individuals. A wild beaver has also been spotted on the River Dyfi near Machynlleth in Wales.