Beavers are the engineers of the animal kingdom, helping to prevent floods across England and beyond. This common species loves to build dams all day long. And this in turns helps to prevent rivers bursting their banks, so the more beavers we look after, the better for everyone! Excellent swimmers and builders, this book follows the journey of a year in the life of a young beaver, as she leaves her family lodge and seeks a new home for herself. Read more simple solutions to stop flooding.
What Goes On Inside a Beaver Pond? is a beautifully illustrated and fascinating guide to one of our most loved species. Children will learn how beavers can fell trees with their strong teeth, and create wetland habitats, where they collect food and ward off predators. Learn what daily life is like within a beaver colony, and find educational side panels on beaver behaviour and anatomy.
The Eurasian beaver (the one that lives in England) is a large herbivore that was almost driven to extinction a few hundred years ago, hunted for its meat and scent glands (to make perfume – a few companies still use it in fake vanilla flavouring – castoreum). Due to its importance in building tarns, mires and bogs, we also lost not only beavers but a lot of our native land. In 2022, the government finally gave beavers legal protection, which led to several projects for nature’s engineers to get busy again creating natural wetlands.
The law almost did not get through, after the government inexplicably delayed the law at the last minute. This caused uproar amid conservationists, as all the law does it to make it an offence to capture, injure, disturb or kill beavers, or damage resting and breeding sites. Thankfully the law did pass, so now beavers are safe. If concerned the law is not being upheld for beavers (or any wild creature), report anonymously at Crimestoppers.
