For the first time in almost 400 years, baby beavers have been born in urban London, according to a conservation study.  The month of October saw the introduction of a family of Eurasian beavers to a nature reserve in Ealing, west London. This initiative intends to monitor the benefits of flood control, examine biodiversity enhancements, and encourage public engagement with nature.

What do the Project Contributors have a take on this?  

Project leaders said the fact that at least two babies, or kits as they are called, had been born on the Paradise Fields site in Greenford showed the beavers were "happy" with the habitat. Dr. Sean McCormack, one of the volunteers behind the project, said he and the other volunteers were "totally over the moon, thrilled, excited". He said it proved beavers and Londoners could live side by side. "There are easy fixes to living alongside beavers, we are just afraid of the unknown, we are afraid of change. We haven't lived alongside beavers for 400 years," he said. “In urban London, we are talking about these kits, the first beavers born in urban London for over 400 years. But arguably are these the first kits ever born in urban London?”

Beavers' dams can lessen floods, enhance water quality, and produce ponds for species like dragonflies and frogs. But, she added, they can obstruct salmon migration and field drainage systems, so communication with fishermen and farmers is crucial. 

In July, kits were spotted in Canterbury, Kent, along the River Stour. According to a recent assessment, the county is currently home to hundreds of wild beavers.  The Wallington Estate, located in Northumberland at the opposite end of England, recently unveiled a new uniform. "Since welcoming the family of beavers [last year 2023], the resulting impact on the water environment has been nothing short of astonishing," stated Paul Hewitt, the National Trust's countryside manager at Wallington.

(A beaver kit in the Cairngorms, where two kits in the upper River Spey catchment are the first wild-born beavers in the Cairngorms for centuries Source: Cairngoms National Park) 

We have observed beavers doing what they do best, which is skillfully modifying their river habitat for the great advantage of other animals.  Although they are seldom spotted outside of their lodges until July or later, kits are typically born between April and June. Before they depart to explore new lands, they live with their parents for three years. However, Elliot McCandless of the Beaver Trust noted that the amount of acceptable habitat inherently limits their ability to spread. 

"Beavers are fiercely territorial and will fight to the death for territory, which is the most common cause of death for males," the expert predicted. "Beavers will be the biggest regulator of beavers." Numerous predators, including otters, badgers, mink, pine marten, birds of prey, and even huge pike, must be avoided by the kits.  2019 saw Scotland recognize beavers as a native, protected species, and 2022 saw England do the same."

McCandless is hopeful that beavers will eventually be restored throughout Britain. "There's a lot of public interest and momentum behind this. It's exciting to watch them flourish in an urban setting, and what's occurring in Ealing is extremely great. But it's just a tiny step toward the recovery of the species. Beavers cannot now be released into the wild in England; they must remain in cages. One of the main obstacles to rehabilitation, according to McCandless, is that. We're generations behind the rest of Europe, which irritates me. Over a century ago, in 1922, beavers were first brought back to Sweden, where they currently number approximately 120,000 individuals!