Reintroducing Beavers to Cornwall
It has been a privilege to work with the Cornwall Wildlife Trust documenting the reintroduction of Two Beavers to an area in Cornwall.
The first time I had ever seen a Beaver in a natural environment was the release at Woodland Valley Farm in 2017. It was fascinating to see them enter the lake and explore their new surroundings. They took their time and the interaction and lack of fear was fascinating and allowed for an unreal experience.
It has been over a year since the release of the beaver couple into their new home at Woodland Valley Farm. Over this time I revisited the release site on a variety of occasions. The main purpose of these visits was to document the changes that the beavers had been making to the environment, the river channel and the ecosystem as a whole. It has been a fascinating journey, watching their home evolve throughout the year. Below is a photo story outlining these changes.
Only a few months had passed since the release, yet the change to the woodland and wetlands was already very obvious and extremely impressive. The beavers had felled many trees and been busy building their main dam, meaning that the water level had risen by a considerable amount. They had used the island in the middle of the lake as a base in which they built their main lodge.
The next time I visited was in August. The water level had risen slightly, however not as dramatically as the previous time. The significant change to the area was the number of further dams that had been built downstream, flooding a large area of the woodland, thus creating new pools and increasing the size of the river system. It is fascinating to see how fast they alter the immediate environment.
Although, the main purpose of my visits to Woodland Valley Farm had been in order to document the change in landscape, I was still determined to get more photos of the beavers themselves.
At the beginning of 2018, exciting news arrived that the pair had settled in so well that over winter they had started a family. The arrival of the beaver pups is a clear indicator that they feel at home in their new environment. However, trying to get a photo of the new arrivals proved to be far more challenging than expected.
One summer evening I arrived at the farm at 6pm, having heard that the beavers had been very active that day. I thought this would give me a few hours to try and get some footage of them before nightfall.
The change they had made to their environment was impressive as they had built a number of new dams and cut down a lot more trees. I took up position at the waters edge and waited, waited and waited some more. As I sat quietly amongst the trees, a family of Canadian geese appeared, who seemed to have taken up residence on the new waterways which the beavers had created. It is amazing how fast four and a half hours can pass, I spent these hours watching the geese whilst soaking up the relaxing sounds of nature and watching the magical light playing on the water.
Suddenly, I was woken out of my mediative trance by a slight rustle not far from me, I was instantly alert - splash! The male appeared. He popped out of the dense bushes next to me, where he had created his bachelor lodge. Proceeding to swim across the lake and then climbing across the main dam into the next pond. Shortly afterward, one of the pups emerged from the safety of the lodge and swam across the lake directly towards me, a beautiful sight to behold. The pups float comically above the water as they swim.
Just as I thought the evening could not get any better, one of the adults climbed out next to me and started munching on the brambles. He was so close I hardly dared to breathe or move a muscle as I listened to him munching.
As darkness fell I eventually left, leaving the beaver family in peace so that they could continue building their dams and bringing up their family. Following on from the success of this project there are further beaver couples being introduced into other sites around the UK over the coming year.
