The Scottish Beavers Reinforcement Project

The Scottish Beaver Trial at Knapdale ended in 2014, with nine animals known to be present. In 2016, Scottish Ministers took the landmark decision to allow beavers to remain in Scotland and to work towards securing European Protected Species status for the species in Scotland.

Beavers released into Knapdale as part of the Trial were never intended as a founder population that would distribute more widely across Scotland. Rather, they were introduced to assess the feasibility of reintroducing beavers more widely to Scotland. In fact, Knapdale Forest was selected as the site for the Trial not only because of the suitability of habitat it could offer beavers, but also due to its geomorphology, which was predicted to act as a natural barrier to prevent beavers dispersing from the area. However, following the successful establishment of beavers in Knapdale, it was felt the population should be given the chance to remain and indeed thrive.

With just nine individuals, all descended from the same population in Norway, there was a very real chance that Knapdale’s beaver population could disappear over time, an outcome that the partner organisations wished to prevent.

To halt this possible loss, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and Scottish Wildlife Trust reunited to form Scottish Beavers. The strategy of this partnership was to reinforce the Knapdale population by increasing both the number of beavers and the genetic diversity present by introducing beavers from additional populations.

RZSS continued to participate in the regular multistakeholder Scottish Beaver Forum, which consists of members of the conservation and land management communities, regularly engaging in lobbying action for issues relating to securing the protection and welfare of wild beavers and securing the option of wider conservation action for this species across Scotland beyond the stated beaver policy areas.

The overarching aim of the Scottish Beavers Reinforcement Project was to translocate beavers into Knapdale to grow and strengthen the population that resulted from the Scottish Beaver Trial, following Scottish Government’s decision to allow beavers to remain in Scotland. By translocating beavers from Scottish human-wildlife-conflict sites originating from illegal releases of predominantly Bavarian origin beavers, the project also aimed to boost genetic diversity in the Norwegian origin Knapdale population, thereby improving long-term resilience.

The project involved RZSS conservation scientists, animal keepers, vets and geneticists, clearly illustrating the strength of having a zoo-based partner on a conservation reintroduction project. The RZSS team was part of a major lobbying effort for beavers to receive European Protected Species status in Scotland, which was achieved in 2018. By the end of the project, new families of beavers had been established in Knapdale and started to breed, the population had increased, and the site was at capacity, with potential for important genetic mixing.

The Scottish Beavers Reinforcement Project has secured the Knapdale beaver population and laid the foundation for fuller recovery of the species across the country.

You can read the final reports from both the Scottish Beavers Trial, and the Scottish Beavers Reinforcement Project.

RZSS submitted this project to the BIAZA Awards Field Conservation Category for 2022 and won a Gold award.