Chapters include:
Introduction: folklore and history.
Beaver Biology and Behaviours: taxonomy;
identification; adaptations for a semi-aquatic lifestyle;
adaptations for a life on land; breeding; social behaviour;
defensive behaviours; chemical communication and scent marking
behaviours; food processing and foraging behaviour.
Habitat and Population Biology: life history;
movements, activity and territoriality.
Beaver Field Signs: teeth marks; felled and gnawed
trees; grazing lawns/vascular plants; feeding stations; foraging
trails; lodges and burrows; dams; canals; scent mounds; faeces;
tracks/prints.
Observing Beavers: remote camera trapping.
Beavers in Modern Landscapes: beavers and the law;
beavers as ecosystem engineers; the return of the beaver.
Roisin Campbell-Palmer is Conservation Projects Manager for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, where she has worked for 12 years. She is Field Operations Manager for the Scottish Beaver Trial and is currently undertaking her PhD in beaver health and welfare. Derek Gow is a freelance ecologist who has worked with beavers and water voles in Britain for over 20 years. He has advised Natural England and Countryside Council for Wales on beaver reintroduction Robert Needham has a BSc in Wildlife Management and an MSc in Ecology. He is currently undertaking a PhD on the relationship between beaver dams and the movement of fish. He has worked on the Scottish Beaver Trial for the past three and a half years. Simon Jones is Director of Conservation at the Scottish Wildlife Trust. He was previously the Project Manager for the Scottish Beaver Trial and has worked in wildlife conservation and reserve management for over 20 years. Frank Rosell is a renowned beaver ecologist, publishing more than 80 scientific papers with peer review. He is professor in behaviour ecology at Telemark University College, Norway, and was part of the advisory board of the Scottish Beaver Trial.
The authors provide an update on their experiences direct from the
field, the quarantine area and the veterinary table. This
fascinating book promotes a future co-existence with beavers in
Britain by providing factual information on their biology,
behaviour and the habitats they help to generate. This remarkable,
unassuming animal has the capacity to help renaturalise our rivers,
re-create areas of wetland, increase biodiversity, provide natural
flood defence, protect soils and filter and purify our water.
*Staffordshire Wildlife*
This admirable little book tells you all you are ever likely to
want to know about the beaver. It is illustrated with many photos
of the animal and its habitat, with maps showing its distribution
and tables of the plants it eats and the signs it leaves. Despite
the text being only 44 pages long, the authors cover everything you
might want to know about these fascinating rodents. Beavers are
being re-introduced to Scotland and Devon but it is very unlikely
that they will find their way to Derbyshire. So you will have to
travel if you want to see them for yourself. My only encounter with
beavers was on holiday in Estonia. Kath and I stopped in Soomaa
National Park and wandered about in the forests finding both felled
trees and huge beaver lodges. One evening while walking by a
stream, we were startled by the amazingly loud ‘slap’ of a beaver’s
tail close to us. This loud noise warns the animal’s family of
danger. It’s a remarkable and unmistakeable sound which certainly
scared the life out of us! A ripple running down the stream was the
closest we came to seeing one. One thing I had never realised was
that Beverley in Yorkshire gets its name from the beaver. And
another; that beavers don’t eat coniferous trees though they
sometimes fell them to use as lodge-building material.
*Derbyshire Wildlife Trust*
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