Europeans beavers have built a dam in an Exmoor stream for the first time in over 400 years. Wild beavers relocated from the River Tay in Scotland in January of this year have constructed a modest little dam from branches and twigs, but this is already helping their new environment with the resulting pool.
Beavers assist both by helping with flood protection by slowing and regulating water flow and by creating pools and a wetland environment that provide a habitat and food for other creatures.
Beavers were hunted to extinction in the UK in the 1500s for their pelts, meat and a substance called castoreum that they naturally secrete and which was used in food, perfumes and medicines.

Beavers use branches and twigs to construct their dams but can also fell larger trees when making dams on a bigger scale.
They are herbivores and survive on water and river bank plants and tubers, as well as trees.

Other species that benefit from the beavers’ activities are many birds such as kingfishers, amphibians, insects, and bats, as well as humans living and working downstream as the dams are natural flood defences and can help prevent the catastrophic flooding which we saw last winter.