On Saturday 13th January a group of us went on a walk looking for signs of beavers along the Avon at Malmesbury. The purpose of the walk was to train everyone present on what signs beavers leave behind so that we would all know how to spot them in the future.
We were joined by professional ecologist Gareth Harris from the Wiltshire Mammal Group (and Wiltshire Bat Group but more of that later!). Gareth began the morning with some background ecology of beavers and some unavoidable humour to go with it!
Aided with handouts, photos and a great reference book we learned about beaver behaviour and what signs to look out for.
Continuing along the river, we started to see overhanging willow branches that had clearly been ‘nibbled’ and then, lying next to the water’s edge a branch which had been cleaned of small shoots, the bark at the end had been stripped back slightly and, where it would have joined the main tree, a 45 degree cut with clearly visible tooth marks!
Members were spotting more and more small signs, hazel where one or two shoots had been removed, trunks with ‘scars’ on them where they had been chewed, a shoot with all the bark removed leaving it bright orange which indicated that the beaver had worked on it very recently and then finally, a trunk of a small tree with a clear 45 degree angle and chippings and sawdust scattered around the base.
We could not have had a better result. We now know that in the 2 years since Natural England carried out their research into beavers south of our region, they have travelled as far as Malmesbury and are starting to make this their home. We do not know how many there are and, on the small amount of river we could follow, did not find their lodge.
Beavers are a fully protected species. Not only is the animal protected but so is their lodge. They are strict vegetarians specialising in eating trees. Their preferred trees are aspen, willow, birch, ash, alder and apple but they will fell any tree if their favourites are not abundant. Therefore, if your property is close to or runs down to the river, and you have trees you particularly value, installing trunk guards might be a good investment.
