Competition to name a baby beaver
Kids needed to help name kit born in beaver
trial
A competition has been launched to name one of the first beavers
born in the wild in Scotland for hundreds of years.
The male kit is already a year old but has been nameless since
his birth last summer.
He was born in Argyll and is part of the Scottish Beaver
Trial.
Beavers became extinct in the wild here over 400 years ago after
hunters killed the last one. People wanted their warm, thick pelt,
or fur.
But in May 2009, four families of Norwegian beavers were
released in Knapdale forest.
The animals are all tagged and are being watched very carefully
to make sure they don't damage the local environment.
If the beavers settle into their new habitat well by 2014 they
will be allowed to stay in the wild in Scotland for good.
They can be very helpful to local ecosystems. By pruning trees
and sometimes damming rivers, beavers make changes to their
environment that can help other species including otters, water
shrews, water voles, birds, dragonflies and fish.
But if the trial is not a success - for example if the beavers
cause a lot of damage to the forest or eat too many fish - then the
beavers may have to be recaptured and put in a zoo or even put
down.
The adult animals involved in the trial all have names,
including Marlene and Mary-Lou.
And hopefully there will be even more wild beavers very soon. A
pregnant female was spotted recently and workers on the trial think
they may have seen a brand new baby in the last few days!
"The little ones can be nearly impossible to spot because they
are absolutely tiny, but fingers crossed we have got one," Greg
Tinker from the Scottish Wildlife Trust told the Daily What
News.
To enter the competition to name the beaver kit send your ideas
to gtinker@swt.org.uk by Friday 7 October. You must be under 16
years old to enter.
The prize is a close up picture of the beaver you will name and
the chance to go on a beaver safari boat trip.
Look out for the winning entry after the October half term - we
will keep you posted!
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Competition to name a baby beaver
Tagged, tracked and traced - Big Brother really is watching the
Argyll beavers
When they were released into the wild
as part of the Scottish Beaver Trial, the 16 beavers from Norway
were fitted with identity labels, satellite tags and radio
transmitters.
Not only that but a team of
volunteers was trained up to track the animal in the forests of
Argyll. The creatures literally can't have a poo without the
Scottish Beaver Trust knowing about it.
Why all the surveillance?
The Scottish Beaver Trial is part of
a European-wide drive to reintroduce the animals into the wild.
Apart from being a popular native species that many people want to
see populating our forests and rivers again, the beaver helps to
create habitats for other wildlife.
But there are many potential
drawbacks too, which is why the Argyll beavers are being very
closely watched.
The animals have no natural
predators in Scotland. A single family will fell up to 300 trees a
year and their dams can cause flooding and affect water
courses.
Scotland has changed in the
time that beavers have been away. Today's landscape has less tree
cover and far more agriculture than it did 500 years ago. Farmers
want to know how the river damming that beavers often do could
affect their fields.
Some anglers fear dams on
salmon rivers could affect fish migration so no salmon rivers are
involved in the trial area.
Beavers are highly selective
feeders, typically taking a branch off one tree, a bough off the
next, ignoring the next - a process known as beaver coppicing. This
has the overall effect of thinning out the tree cover to let in
more light.
But it's not all bad and in
fact, beavers can have a positive impact on forestry, fishing and
farming.
At Loch Coille-Bharr in
Knapdale visitors are encouraged to walk on the Beaver Detective
Trail to see a dam created by the beavers. Beyond the dam is a
broad stretch of water full of birch, rowan and willow trees, as
well as frogs and toads.
Besides helping frogs, the
still water can provide a valuable source of fish for otters,
increase breeding and feeding areas for herons and kingfishers, and
boost insect and fish numbers too.
When, eventually, the beavers
abandon the dam it breaks down in rainfall and eventually gets
washed away, causing the water level to drop and leaving behind a
'beaver meadow', an area of nutrient-rich sediment that causes a
flush of green vegetation.
Dams can also hold water during
periods of drought, regulate flooding and improve water quality by
catching silt and agricultural run-off.
Coppicing has been a normal
process on riverbanks and the actions of beavers will make the
woodland habitat more natural.
If, after five years, the
Argyll beavers are found to have benefitted the area, the programme
of reintroduction will continue. If not, they will be sent to live
in zoos, other ecology projects or may even be put down.
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