The Scottish Beaver Trial team has been busy doing a spot of match-making this week, with hopes to see some loch-side love in time for the next breeding season.
On Tuesday (21 September 2010), a new male beaver from Telemark, Norway (the same area where all the beavers as part of the Scottish Beaver Trial are from) was successfully released into a loch within the Trial area. This loch is already home to Trude, a female beaver reintroduced in June this year which has been thriving and has established its own individual territory in Knapdale Forest.
Beavers are social animals, living in family groups and mating for life. It is also important that the Scottish Beaver Trial establishes a viable breeding beaver population over the course of our five-year project. This will help us achieve our aim to determine how beavers will prosper in Scottish habitats and to assess their effect on the current Scottish environment.
For these reasons, we wanted to introduce a male beaver nearby to Trude’s territory in the hope that they follow their instincts and pair up. Prior to release the area was marked with the male’s scent to encourage the female to welcome the new arrival.
SBT’s Project Leader, Roisin Campbell-Palmer, said: “This two-year-old male, which was now known as Christian and was captured in Norway by colleagues at Telemark University College, is at an age where he would naturally disperse from his family group in search of a breeding partner so we are really hopeful that this arranged introduction will be the start of a breeding relationship.
“Over the next few weeks we hope to see clear signs of acceptance as the pair get to know each other. Eventually, we hope they build a lodge together to indicate their bond as a pair and potentially they will then breed next year.”
Simon Jones, SBT Project Manager, added: “Since release, our female beaver has already found the scent of the male. While she is protective of her territory and naturally cautious, we hope that she will follow her instincts and pair up with the suitable male – he might just have to put up with some tail slapping from her first.
“We will be monitoring the progress of these two beavers very closely over the coming weeks.”
For more information about the Scottish Beaver Trial, a time-limited release of beavers in Knapdale Forest, Mid-Argyll, or to keep up-to-date with the latest news from the field checkout the Beaver Blog.