On Tuesday 30^th April, Olwen Hemmings from the Scottish Beaver Trial came over to see us at Lismore Primary School to hold a workshop about beavers at as part of the children’s “Habitats” topic. Olwen works as the Education Ranger for the Scottish Beaver Trial based at Cairnbaan in Argyll. Beavers died out many years ago as they were captured for their beautiful fur or pelts. They have now been re- introduced to Argyll as part of a five year trial and the project is proving very successful so far.

The children were challenged to work through a series of tasks which helped them to find out a bit more about these amazing animals.

Firstly, they were presented with four pelts of different Scottish mammals and they were asked to decide which one belonged to a beaver and which ones were the pelts of other mammals such as deer, fox and badger. Surprisingly, the softest pelt with the longest hairs belonged to the beaver. This cosy coat enables it to keep warm even when it is wet.

Next, there were footprints to recognise – a beaver has webbed feet to enable it to swim efficiently.

The children were presented with a variety of different sized pictures of beavers and had to determine the size of an adult beaver. Beavers are much bigger than any of the children thought growing to 1 metre in adult life.

The children studied four different skulls, once again from different Scottish mammals. The beaver skull was clear with the very sharp front teeth or incisors used for cutting wood in order to feed on bark and build dams and lodges.

Several types of natural material which had been gnawed or bitten were then given to the children for examination – the task was to work out which marks had been made by a beaver.

Finally the children were challenged to build their own dam using sticks as a beaver wood. The dams were then tested to see how watertight they were.

Oly spent the afternoon taking the children down to Newfield Burn where the group discussed the likelihood of finding beavers there and whether it would be a good habitat for them.

The children found out lots of interesting facts about the beavers and are now looking forward to a second visit from Oly in June when they will be learning more about the beaver’s habitat. Thank you very much to Oly and the Scottish Beaver Trial a super day.

www.isleoflismore.com

The Scottish Beaver Trial (SBT) recently held a Continuing Personal Development (CPD) evening designed to show school teachers what our Trial site in Knapdale can offer them and their classes coming on a site visit.

The event was well attended with 13 staff from primary and secondary schools attending from as far afield as Taynuilt and Campbeltown in Argyll.

The group started in the visitor information hut at Barnluasgan car park where we discussed the Trial and the educational opportunities it can offer school groups.  Looking specifically at beavers to begin with, the group was shown a beaver skull, pelt, chewed sticks and chips that beavers had fed on and the information boards in the information centre, and how they can be used as educational materials for a group visit. Additionally, the attendees were  shown our online resources on the SBT website, including the new virtual tour  video of  the Dubh loch.  SBT education packs, including  classroom  posters, lesson plans and activities were given to all attendees.

Looking at the wider benefits of bringing groups to the site for a visit, a demonstration of pond dipping  took place highlighting another activity that can be done with a group.  It’s a fun and interesting activity allowing participants to take a close up look at some of the local wildlife.  Pupils can then use keys  and books to identify what they have found and record species numbers, graphing the data on return to class.  Photography and art can  also be used to continue this topic back in the classroom.

The group was then taken on a walking tour down to the Dubh loch and shown beaver feeding signs, beaver canals and the beaver dam. On the way down, lots of evidence of other wildlife can be seen.  We often see frogs, slugs and newts on the main path down to the Dubh loch at this time of year, as well as evidence of deer browsing on the bark of the trees.  The forest around the Dubh loch is a great example of natural regeneration as the site was cleared of its Forestry Commission tree crop some years ago.  The area shows a good variety of plant species native to this area. We also have the ancient Atlantic oak woodland which is a rare habitat in the UK, with the largest remaining areas being found on the west coast of Scotland.  The oak trees grow along the ridge where the path leads to the dam and there is a great example of an old coppiced oak with seven trunks  there too – a great place to get a picture of children standing ‘inside’ the tree!

Returning to the visitor information centre after the walk, teachers were given the opportunity to chat over a cup of tea or coffee and many of them said they would look into bringing a group to the site, either for an SBT Education Ranger led session, or on their own.  We received lots of positive feedback from the attendees and feel that it was an enjoyable and worthwhile event.

If you’d like to know more about the SBT site, or organise a group visit (all ages) please contact Oly Hemmings the SBT Education Ranger at ohemmings@swt.org.uk

In the middle of March I arrived from France to do my two-month internship at the Scottish Beaver Trial. I am doing my first year of the Master degree in Organisms and Populations Biology at the Burgundy University in Dijon. I am specialising in Biodiversity and Conservation and I am especially interested in animal species conservation. Working on a reintroduction trial abroad was a great opportunity. My project is to compare the building behaviours of the four beaver families in the Scottish Beaver Trial.

Birds-eye view over the Dubh Loch, Knapdale Forest

Beavers are surprisingly interesting animals. I had not seen any beaver constructions before I came here and I was really impressed by what they can do. I’ve been very lucky and I saw my first beavers on the first day that I worked with the SBT. We went out at night on Dubh Loch and we saw some beavers swimming around the lodge. One of them popped up really close from the canoe, a few metres in front of me.

I help Rob, the SBT Field Officer with  field work tasks, which is very interesting, and allows me to discover the beautiful area of the Knapdale forest.

I realise that working in the field is something I would like to do in my future career. I have learned how to recognise the different beavers on the camera traps videos. For my project I have to measure every beaver construction, such as dams and lodges. It was not easy to figure out how to do this in a standardised method, but I managed to find a way.

Measuring a small beaver dam

I am now using camera traps to try to get some video footage of beaver building behaviour .

Setting up a camera trap on Loch Buic

I have been quite lucky with the Scottish weather… until now! I am enjoying my stay in Scotland which is a beautiful country with very nice people. But I miss the French bread a wee bit!

Larbert High School in Falkirk had a visit from the Scottish Beaver Trial team
and came up with some marketing ideas! The pupils were given a presentation
about beavers and red squirrels in Scotland and the conservation work that
surrounds them. The pupils were then tasked by teachers to come up with a
campaign leaflet for one of the species. They then had to present these leaflets
and the ideas behind them to the team. They came up with some exciting and eye
catching slogans and ideas and everyone was impressed by their creativity.

On Thursday 28th February the Scottish Beaver Trial partners, in conjunction with the Heart of Argyll Tourism Alliance,  ran a ‘Beaver Tourism Experience’ event for local businesses involved in the tourism industry at the Cairnbaan Hotel. The event aimed to give those working in the accommodation, retail and activity sectors a better understanding of what the Trial is about, what beavers do and what information is available to pass onto their guests and customers who may wish to visit the Trial site in Knapdale.

Darren Dobson, owner of The Cairnbaan Hotel talks about how the Scottish Beaver Trial has benefited his business

Wildlife tourism is  extremely important to Scotland, worth an estimated £65 million a year and Argyll in particular is one of Scotland’s hotpsots for wildlife watching with facilities such as the Sea Eagle hide on Mull, several marine wildlife boat operators and now the Knapdale beavers helping to promote the area as ‘Nature’s Paradise’.

Phillip Price of Loch Visions talks about his clients photographing wild beavers in Knapdale

The event attracted a full house and delegates travelled not only from the local area but as far afield as Stirling, Granton-on-Spey and even Wales. After a brief introduction about the Trial from Simon Jones, SBT Project Manager, the audience were shown live on-line the newly developed beaver ‘Tourism Toolkit’ which can be found on the Trial website at www.scottishbeavers.org.uk and which contains downloadable fact sheets, images, video clips, and posters that can be easily accessed for use by businesses and visitors alike. Next delegates heard from three local business people whose trade has been affected by the presence of the beavers and the visitors who come to try and see them. Darren Dobson, owner of the Cairnbaan Hotel explained that the beavers had brought in an estimated 100 bednights and over £20,000 in extra turnover from ‘beaver tourists’ staying and dining at the hotel. Darren refers to himself as a ‘Beaver Believer’! Next local photographer Phillip Price who runs ‘Loch Visions’ a wildlife photography and tour business, gave a passionate account of how the beavers have given his business a new dimension and why he too is a ‘Beaver Believer’ after seeing the habitat creation work that beavers carry out as part of their fascinating behaviour. Finally Carron Tobin, from the Heart of Argyll Tourism Alliance explained the growing significance of wildlife tourism to the local area and how the beavers, as a unique selling point for Knapdale created an opportunity that should be grasped by local businesses.

Beaver Tourism delegates learn about beaver fur on their guided tour

After a networking lunch the delegates then all headed out to the nearby Barnlusagan Information Centre where they experienced first hand a Beaver guided walk, led by Scottish Beaver Trial staff, which took them on part of the ‘Beaver Detective Trail’ walk along the side of Loch Coille Bharr to the impressive beaver pond and dam at the Dubh Loch.

The Dubh Loch beaver dam in Knapdale

We would like to thank all of the delegates who took time to travel to the Beaver Tourism Experience and make it such a success. We have had some really useful feedback and this helps us to further develop the effectiveness of promotional materials and how these can best reach visitors and ensure that the Trial not only helps to heighten the awareness of beavers, but also promote this wonderful local area and bring in new business to the local economy.

Here at the Scottish Beaver Trial we are all looking forward to the upcoming screening of BBC2s Great British Winter. This programme will feature some of the hard working SBT team performing a routine health check on an adult male beaver called Christian with some welcome help from the BBC presenter Ellie Harrison. Ellie and the SBT team battled with the Scottish winter to bring you this footage! Luckily you can watch from the comfort of your living room on Wednesday the 6^th of March at 6:30pm on BBC2.

Click here to see footage of Christian grooming, taken by one of our trap cameras

In July last year, we were very excited to welcome the survival
and bushcraft expert Ray Mears to the Scottish Beaver Trial here at Knapdale.
Ray was here to film for a new series of ITVs “Ray Mears Wild
Britain”. As the title suggests, the series is all about the wildlife in the
British Isles, and Ray was very keen to include the Knapdale Beavers in the
series.

The day started by filming an interview with the SBT former chairman Allan Bantick. The interview took place at the dam on the Dubh Loch where Ray and Allan discussed the benefits of having beavers back in the Scottish ecosystem after a 400 year absence.

The filming went well and once the ITV production team were happy with what they had got we had a loch side picnic, with discussions…obviously about beavers, but also the Wimbledon Semi-finals and whether Andy Murray would make it through to the finals…which he did!!

After lunch we moved to Loch Linne where we were filming Ray in the SBT canoe searching for signs of the beavers. It was very reassuring to see Ray so excited about the fact that beavers are living wild in Scotland again…albeit on a trial basis.

Later that evening, after dinner and a very exciting Wimbledon semi-final, we returned to Loch Linne to try and film the beavers. We waited quietly in our boat with the film crew whilst Ray waited patiently in the canoe. It was not long before our patience was rewarded and we were watching two beavers swimming on the far side of the loch.

Overall it was a great couple of days of filming and beaver watching and it was fantastic to have Ray’s support. We hope to welcome Ray back to the Trial in the near future. People with ITV can click here find this episode on the ITV Player but for those in the STV region you will have to wait a few more weeks before it’s aired.

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been volunteering with the Scottish Beaver Trial and have experienced various aspects of the project, in every type of Scottish weather!

An important part of our work has been the Field Sign Surveys. We walked around the trial area identifying signs of active beavers, including felling, feeding stations and habitat modifications.

Beavers manage their habitats to suit their needs. For example, they create canals which they move along to collect trees and branches that they use as a food source and a building material. These canals make it quicker and easier for the beavers to move around safely.

We have seen how the beavers use this collected wood to improve and maintain their lodge and to build up dams. As we found this week on the Buic Lodge, the beavers will also use whatever is to hand, including plastic piping!

We then mapped where we found the field signs using the Geographical Information System (GIS). This is important because it allows us to build up an idea of the extent of the impact beavers have on the ecosystem. We have also used the GIS to record the coordinates of beaver activities caught on the camera traps and create a database of recordings.

We have also been involved in water sampling and monitoring at several different sites around the trial area. Not only is this important to monitor the visible effects of the beavers on the environment, we must also monitor the impact they have on both the chemical and physical properties of the water.

We collected 5 water samples from 10 different sites across the trial area which were then sent off for chemical analysis to monitor any changes in the water quality. In order to monitor the physical effects beavers have on water depth, we collected 3 different depth recordings from several sites across the trial area.

We took stage board readings, actual measured depths and downloaded depth recordings from electronic data loggers. These measure the depth every 15 minutes and the data is looked at alongside rainfall data to see if the beavers are affecting water depth. Measuring the depth by hand proved to be a difficult task as we ended up with wellies full of 4°C water having slightly misjudged how much we would sink into the muddy riverbed!

One of the most exciting experiences during our time with the trial was when the BBC film crew (with presenter Ellie Harrison) came to film for their new show, “British Winter Up-Close”. The weather certainly lived up to the name of the show, with thunder and lightning and even a hail storm to contend with! They came to film the process of trapping a beaver so that the SBT team could complete health checks.

We managed to trap Christian who seemed to be in good health as his tail thickness indicated he was of a healthy weight. We also took a fecal sample to conduct further tests. It was really interesting to be involved in the filming process, even though it took a few takes in the freezing cold to get it right! Look out for Roisin and Ellie releasing Christian back into the loch on the BBC soon!

As SBT Field Opertions Manager, Roisin has been involved in a long term research project into beaver parasites. We had the opportunity to help dissect the caecum (an extension of the large intestine), stomach and large intestine of a wild Norwegian beaver to look for a fluke worm which is only found in beavers. We sifted through a substantial amount of food at various stages of digestion, which was not a process for the faint-hearted, and in the end found no sign of parasites!

Over the last couple of weeks, Stramash Outdoor Nursery in Oban and Little Learners Nursery in Dunstaffnage have had a beaver morning.

During my visits to the nurseries the children compared beaver fur with fox, badger and deer. They successfully guessed which one was which and then had a closer look at the full beaver pelt and found out what is special about it’s tail and feet.

They looked at life size pictures of beavers and discovered how big beavers can grow. I also showed them some branches beavers had been nibbling and highlighted the marks their teeth had left in the wood. We then looked at a beaver’s skull so that we could compare their teeth with other animals and their skulls.

Stramash Nursery children also got to play a beaver game outside, where the children ran around pretending to be beavers. There were some pretty fantastic beaver impressions on display, particularly their flapping tails!

Unfortunately the weather was so bad the day we went to see the Little Learners that we didn’t get to go outside and play that game… perhaps that could be an excuse for me to go back some time in the near future!