Beavers： how they benefit the UK countryside

Hi everyone, my name's Rupert Kirkwood, I'm the Lone Kayaker and today I'm going to tell you all about beavers, their reappearance in the UK and why we should welcome them back so enthusiastically. I first came across beavers on a Cornish Creek just like this one about 10 years ago. First of all I saw signs of them, willow sticks nibbled clean, a tree which had been enthusiastically gnawed by something and I then started to set out really early in the morning after dawn and found beavers commuting busily back to their lodges along a river just like this one. Beavers have been absent from the UK actually since the 16th century, since the 1500s time of Tudors and Henry VIII. They were hunted to extinction for their fur, beaver hats particularly popular for their meat and also for a substance called castoreum which is a secretion from their castor sacs which are a type of gland around their rear end and that substance was used for perfume, for medicines and even flavouring in food. Beavers have been unofficially reappearing around the country probably as escapes from collections but now at last there have been some licensed wild releases in Scotland and around southern UK so beavers are back and they seem to be doing very well and loving being back. Although they're not actually that small, they're actually the second biggest rodent in the whole world, second only in size to the South American capybara, they're actually very shy and secretive and difficult to see because they're mainly nocturnal and I get the impression they all like to be in bed by about seven o'clock in the morning so you've got to be out early or very early to see one. But they've got a hefty appetite, they're big, they've got a very voracious appetite, they eat about 20% of their own body weight in vegetation every day so I really love it when I'm watching a beaver chugging back down the river on its way back to bed but they cannot resist stopping off at a local willow tree for a travel snack on the way home. Willow seems to be their favourite but I've also seen them happily chewing through cow parsley and even munching their way through the invasive non-native Japanese knotweed. Beavers are considered to be a keystone species and what that means is that they play a disproportionately large role in maintaining the structure and function of an ecosystem. These species are the glue that holds the ecosystem together. So what is it they do? They build dams, dig channels and create wetlands. They slow down the flow of water in the small rivers where they live and this all creates a haven for a whole host of wild creatures. A protected area for small fish, fish fry, salmon, minnows and that sort of thing which in turn encourages a load of very rarely seen wild animals, water shrews, water voles, kingfishers of course and also will encourage otters. The variety of wetland habitats enhances the diversity of insect life of invertebrates so a host of damselflies, dragonflies. Also it encourages amphibians, frogs, toads, newts to lay their spawn and in the summertime these quiet lakes with their buzzing insects over the surface are just a magical place for swallows and swifts and these declining species which need insects to feed upon will travel a long way to feast upon the myriad of little flying insects in the summertime. They slow the water down which catches sediment, they filter out pollutants, they also act as a reservoir of water in terms of drought and also perhaps more importantly they buffer the slur of water which actually prevents flooding downstream. Everyone's crying out for solutions to halt the appalling decline of species across the UK and to do something about the country's appalling, embarrassing status as one of the most wildlife depleted countries in the world. So beavers are the answer. If you want to create a wildlife reserve beavers will do it for you. The story of the return of the beaver is a great way to stimulate the general public's enthusiasm for nature because everybody loves beavers in the same sort of a way that they love kingfishers, seals and dolphins. Beavers can be a great benefit to any woodland owner and all you need to encourage them is a patch of permanent water, lots of tree cover they like because they're actually quite shy and secretive. So it's a long overdue warm welcome back to the timid brown furry creature that reinvigorates the rivers and breathes new life into the ecosystem. The busy beaver.