Britain’s first beaver kit born in Dorset for over 400 years, report conservationists

Beavers have bred in Dorset for the first time in over 400 years at Dorset Wildlife Trust’s enclosed beaver site in West Dorset. Trail cameras inside the enclosure have captured images of a young beaver, known as a kit, and its mother exploring the watery woodland created by its parents since they were released in February 2021.
Working alongside University of Exeter and Wessex Water, Dorset Wildlife Trust has been assessing the impacts that beavers make on the natural environment including river flow, water quality and biodiversity. Since the beavers were introduced to site, they have built dams, creating a wetland that provides habitat for many other species.

The happy couple
“We have been closely monitoring the pair since their release and it has been clear that they have formed a strong bond in the time they have been on site,” said Rivers Conservation Officer Steve Oliver. “The trail cams have only identified one kit so far, but beavers can typically have one to four babies in a litter, and we are discreetly observing their activity to see if any others have been born.
Seeing the first kit is an incredibly exciting moment for the project and breeding is a clear indication of normal behaviour and that the adult pair are healthy and happily settled in their Dorset surroundings. This local project is an enormous step forward on the journey to restore beavers to Dorset, helping us to raise awareness and understanding of what it means to have these influential mammals back in our county. Beavers have the potential to make a huge difference to our natural environment and can assist nature’s recovery as well as providing other benefits for humans.”

Hunted to extinction
The Eurasian beaver Castor fiber was once native to Dorset. Beavers are known as nature’s ecosystem engineers because their activities, including dam building – which they do to create deep water in which they feel safe, – have such a positive impact on the local environment. Beavers even have the potential to reduce flooding by slowing the rate of water during extreme rainfall events. Once common in the UK, the 16th century saw Eurasian beavers hunted to extinction for their meat, fur, and castoreum, a secretion from their castor glands.
To find out more about the Dorset Wildlife Trust’s Beaver project, visit dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk/BeaverProject.