We are working to reintroduce beavers to the Scottish Highlands. These remarkable animals are nature’s engineers, helping to bring life back to our landscapes. As a keystone species, their wetlands purify water, reduce flooding, and capture carbon – while creating homes for fish, birds, and countless other species. By restoring balance to rivers and woodlands, beavers help shape nature-rich, healthier places for both wildlife and people.
Once widespread across Scotland, beavers were hunted to extinction in the 16th century and have been absent for hundreds of years. Today, guided by the Scottish Government’s Beaver Strategy, we are working to return them to suitable habitats and support their ongoing expansion across the country.
Beavers are extraordinary mammals, the second-largest rodent in the world, instantly recognisable by their flat tails and strong orange teeth, which they use to fell trees and build dams. Scotland’s native Eurasian beavers are now making a comeback through legal protection and carefully managed reintroductions, after centuries of absence.
Frequently asked questions
Beaver species
There are two species of beaver, the Eurasian beaver (native to Scotland) and the North American beaver. They are very similar in appearance and habit, but the North American beaver is slightly larger and builds significantly bigger dams.
Beavers are the second-largest rodent in the world. Like other rodents, they have four long incisor teeth which carry on growing throughout their lives. The front surfaces of the incisors are orange, thanks to tooth-strengthening iron within the enamel. This is ideal for gnawing through wood.
Eurasian beavers, our native species, were once found from eastern Asia to western Europe and Britain. They are thought to have almost gone extinct by the 1600s due to overhunting. They were targeted for their fur and castoreum, a substance once used for medicinal properties and for making perfume. Legal protection and reintroductions to 24 countries in Europe in the 20th century have restored them to much of their former range.
How big is a beaver?
Beavers can grow in size similar to that of an average dog. They usually weigh between 16–30kg, measuring 60–90cm in body length, with tail lengths of 20-35cm. Unusually for mammals, female beavers are the same size or slightly larger than males of the same age, and they are difficult to tell apart.
How long do they live?
In the wild, most beavers that survive their first two years have a life expectancy of 12-14 years.
What do they eat?
Beavers are completely vegetarian. They do not eat fish but instead a wide range of aquatic plants, grasses and shrubs during the summer months and woody plants in winter. Most foraging activity occurs within 20-40m of the water’s edge to avoid predation, with beavers rarely moving more than 60m from water to forage. When they eat trees, they prefer softer wood and species that can most easily regenerate, like willow, aspen and birch. They can fell large trees but tend to favour small saplings, which are easier to digest.
Habitat – where do beavers like to live?
Beavers are highly versatile and occupy a wide range of environments, up to and including urban areas. As with most animals, beavers need food sources and shelter. The food sources they use are aquatic vegetation like reeds and sedges, as well as riverside trees and shrubs, particularly those that regenerate quickly. They like well-vegetated river banks, particularly where there is woodland. Water around 0.6 m (two feet) deep gives them more cover from predators and they tend to avoid streams with gradients steeper than one in seven.
How do beavers manage such an aquatic lifestyle?
Beavers are adapted for an aquatic lifestyle, with a sleek, waterproof coat and flat, scaly tails that act as rudders and can be slapped against the water as a warning alarm. Their thick, dense brown fur helps keep their skin dry. ‘Nictitating membranes’ or third eyelids act like swimming goggles. Beavers have valves to close their ears and noses while swimming and can hold their breath for up to 15 minutes. They can even close their mouths behind their front teeth so that they can chew underwater!
How many young are there in a litter?
Beaver young are called kits, and there are usually between one and four kits in a litter.
How many litters do beavers have in a year?
One litter, usually born between April and June.
How long do beaver kits stay with their mother?
Kits stay with their mother until they are about two years old. They usually stay in the lodge for four to six weeks while their parents and older siblings bring leafy twigs for them to eat before emerging to feed with their parents.
At what age do they start to breed?
Kits typically leave their mother when they are about two years old to find a territory and partner of their own. Beaver pairs are thought to mate for life or until their partner dies. Mating takes place between December and February.
How do beavers travel through landscapes?
Beavers spend most of their lives no more than 20m from water, although they are occasionally known to range up to 100m from a watercourse. They struggle with steep ground, so they tend to travel up and down rivers and move into relatively flat tributaries, though they can deal with short steep stretches and occasionally cross open ground if they have to.
What does a beaver lodge look like?
Eurasian beavers build two kinds of lodge. Where the banks are suitable, they prefer to dig burrows into the riversides, especially where there is woodland vegetation to provide food and cover. If the banks are too rocky for this, they take the time and effort to build a lodge from mud and cut branches. All lodges have a safe underwater entrance and at least one dry chamber.
Where do beavers build dams?
Beavers only build dams where their habitat does not provide all the conditions suitable for their needs – they won’t make an effort if they don’t need to build a dam. Beavers feel safe with water around them, so they may construct a dam where they want to create deeper ponds to build a lodge, or to allow them to get to food resources without having to leave the water.
Many dams are temporary, especially on ‘flashy’ streams where water levels swell quickly after heavy rain – beaver dams will start to fall apart when they are overtopped by fast-flowing water.
Eurasian beavers create smaller dams than their North American counterparts, on narrower streams rather than broad, fast-flowing rivers. Most dams are therefore built on narrower streams, and it is unusual for dams to be built on rivers wider than 6m.
Beavers are ecosystem engineers and bring many benefits to wildlife, plants, people and our climate.
River bank woodlands
In woodland environments, beavers help to stimulate new growth by gnawing on tree stems and coppicing. This helps to breathe new life into forests and creates a diverse age range of trees which often leads to a flush of wildflowers which attract pollinating insects such as butterflies. The openings created in the woodland canopy offer perfect hunting grounds for bats. As the thicket grows, it can provide ideal nesting sites for birds such as warblers. It also creates standing dead wood used by a range of specialist insects and bird species like woodpeckers and nuthatches. The regrowth of trees coppiced by beavers depends on the browsing pressure from deer being low enough to permit regeneration, so protection with fencing can sometimes be an important part of riverside habitat management.
Wildlife
Beaver dams form wetland habitats behind the dam, which quickly start to increase the number of living areas available for certain plants to grow. This in turn creates better habitats for insects which then provide greater food sources for fish, birds, bats and other mammals like water voles and water shrews. The result is an enriched, more biodiverse habitat, with more food and shelter availability, for a broader range of wildlife. See reference materials.
Fish
A number of studies have found that beaver presence tends to have a positive effect on fish populations, including trout and Atlantic salmon, by increasing feeding opportunities and by providing more places for fish to shelter in the channel or survive in times of drought. In parts of the US, fishery managers are actively encouraging beaver activity to improve the quality of habitat for fish populations. See reference materials.
Reducing flooding
Beaver dams slow the flow of rivers and streams, holding water in the landscape for longer. This helps lower flood peaks after heavy rain and keeps water available in dry spells – a lifeline for wildlife and grazing animals. In Bavaria, where beaver reintroduction led to a conflict, now resolved, between farming and conservation in the 1990s, beaver dams are now credited with protecting at least one previously flood-prone village from flooding.
Improving water quality
Beaver dams filter water flows. Research suggests that ponds and water pools created from beaver dams can benefit local water quality. Dams are usually only built on small streams, which can moderate the detrimental effect of irregular flow. The ponds they create can help to neutralise acidic run-off, act as sinks for pollutants and increase the self-purification of a watercourse. They can form considerable sediment traps, reducing erosive runoff and particulate loads in downstream water. This has been demonstrated in several studies from Europe and the US and has also been assessed at the River Otter in Devon.
Economic and wellbeing benefits
Studies of the socio-economic effects of beavers in Scotland have found both financial and non-monetary benefits from having beavers in a local area. Wildlife tourism is the most significant economic benefit, but figures have also been calculated for the monetary value of volunteer time and educational benefits. See reference materials.
Beavers in Scotland
Beavers were once found throughout Scotland, but had been hunted to extinction by the 1600s. They have special glands near the base of the tail that produce a substance called castoreum, which they use to mark their territory. Humans hunted beavers not only for their fur and meat but also for this substance. Castoreum was prized for its medicinal properties and used in making perfume.
What beaver populations currently exist in Scotland?
There are Scottish beaver populations at Argaty, Cairngorms National Park, Knapdale, Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve, River Beauly, River Forth, Tayside and the Trossachs.
Are beavers territorial?
Beavers are strongly territorial, so there is a natural limit on how many beavers can occupy a river system – once all of the available territories in a catchment are occupied, new animals need to travel in search of suitable habitat.
How quickly do beaver populations grow and spread?
Successful reintroductions in Europe have all seen animals spread slowly into available territories. After a number of years, populations usually start to grow rapidly, dispersing in search of territories and then settle at a level that the available viable habitat can support. How quickly this happens depends on the richness of the landscape for beavers. For instance, it has taken several decades for Norwegian and Swedish beaver populations to fully occupy the habitat available there, whereas Bavaria in Germany became fully occupied more quickly.
Where else have beavers been reintroduced?
Eurasian beavers have been reintroduced to Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and Wales.
What is the process for reintroducing beavers in Scotland?
Beavers cannot be captured, transported or released in Scotland without a licence from NatureScot. Under both the Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations and the Scottish Beaver Strategy, an essential step in applying for any reintroduction licence is public engagement to carefully consider all the benefits and issues that could come with a specific project. The ecological aspects are also an essential issue, with detailed habitat assessments a key part of this.
Beaver history timeline
2025 – Glen Affric National Nature Reserve Beaver Project and Abriachan Beaver Project
Licence granted for six beaver families to return to two locations in the northern Scottish Highlands. The Glen Affric licence followed three years of partnership work between Trees for Life and Forestry and Land Scotland.
2024 – Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park
The first beavers were released in collaboration with Forestry and Land Scotland in an effort to establish a wild population. Loch Ard Forest is now home to over 20 beavers.
2023 – Cairngorms National Park Beaver Project
Following a period of extensive community engagement, the Cairngorms National Park Authority applied for a licence from NatureScot, which was granted in December 2023, allowing for the release of 15 pairs of beavers over a five-year period.
2023 – Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve Beaver Project
In January 2023, RSPB Scotland translocated a family group of seven beavers to the Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve at the mouth of the River Endrick.
2022 – Scottish Beaver Strategy
The Scottish Beaver Strategy, co-developed by over 50 farming, land and conservation organisations is published by the Scottish Government.
2021 – Argaty Beaver Project
Beaver Trust facilitates the first translocation of beavers to Argaty Red Kites. The first translocation within Scotland not to the Scottish Beaver Trial.
2021 – New measures for Scotland’s beavers
The Scottish Government announces it will actively support the expansion of the beaver population by promoting translocation to move beavers into new suitable areas.
2019 – Scotland’s beavers given protected status
Scotland’s beavers are added to the European Protected Species List and a management framework is introduced for land owners or managers to follow to obtain a licence to resolve conflicts with beavers.
2016 – Beavers to remain in Scotland
Following the publication of the ‘Beavers in Scotland’ report in 2015 after the completion of the Scottish Beaver Trial, the Scottish Government announced that the wild-living populations in Knapdale and Tayside would be allowed to remain.
2009 – Scottish Beaver Trial
The Scottish Government launched the Scottish Beaver Trial in Knapdale on the West Coast of Scotland. 15 beavers were released into the area as part of a five-year trial to monitor the effects of beavers.
Early 2000s – Tay catchment, Scotland
A wild beaver population is observed in the Tay catchment.
20th century – European reintroductions
Sweden was the first European country to reintroduce beavers in the 1920s. Other countries have since followed suit including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Early 20th century – Almost extinct across Europe
By the early 20th century, they remained in only eight populations, totalling just 1200 individuals.
1526 – Last beaver record in Scotland
One of the last Scottish records tells of them around Loch Ness in the 1500s.
Early 12th century – Almost extinct across Europe
By the 12th century the beavers range had been substantially reduced and by the 16th century they were almost extinct.
10,000 years ago – Holocene epoch
Beavers lived across most of Europe and northern Asia as well as areas in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
Beavers are native mammals in Britain and have spent thousands of years alongside people and wildlife until they were hunted to extinction. However, while beavers have been a natural part of our environment in the past, they do have the potential to cause problems for some modern land uses. These problems can often be mitigated using techniques that have been successfully developed and applied in other countries.
Localised flooding
Beaver dams can cause localised flooding. Where narrow channels are dammed, stream waters can build up behind and spread onto the neighbouring ground, especially where the stream banks are low. While this can create valuable wetland habitat, it can also cause problems by flooding valuable farmland.
An unauthorised population of beavers became established in the Tay river system in the early 2000s. No plans were in place at this time to deal with their effects on land uses like farming in the catchment. As a result, when beavers made their way to the lower, flatter parts of the catchment, some arable farmers saw their crops damaged by flooding caused by beaver dams. In areas where the riverbanks are particularly sandy, beaver burrowing may have worsened erosion of riverside farmland. NatureScot have since developed a Beaver Management Framework for beavers which provides technical advice and support for practical action to mitigate beaver impacts on land use.
These kinds of impacts are much less common beyond the lower parts of the Tay catchment, where the nature of the landform and land use are more susceptible to beaver activity having unwanted effects on farming.
Fish movement
Salmon and sea trout use small burns to reach their spawning grounds. Access to these areas is therefore vital in maintaining healthy wild fish populations. Fish have swum through, round and over beaver dams for thousands of years, although in dry periods, low water levels can temporarily prevent adult salmon and trout from jumping dams to access their spawning areas. This is most likely to occur in smaller burns, but this has the potential to affect a significant element of the local fish migration in a given year. Recent research has given some indication that migratory fish are passing beaver dams in Scotland and may fare better in beaver environments. See reference materials for further information.
Beavers and trees
Beavers eat trees and fell them to provide building materials. They have a strong preference for softer wood and for trees that will regenerate most readily, like willow, birch and aspen. They can fell large trees, but tend to favour small saplings. The places where beavers have been on this river are often marked by the characteristic pointy stump of a beaver-chewed trunk with fresh new shoots growing up from beneath the cut. This coppicing effect helps to maintain tree cover for the long term and to provide changing conditions of light and shade on the river which can benefit aquatic plants, insects and fish.
Crop damage
Beavers will forage in arable crops like sugar beet, carrots, potatoes and cereals. This is usually confined to within 20m of the water’s edge, although they will sometimes dig canals to expand the area they can reach without straying too far from water. Beavers will also dam drainage ditches and this has been a significant cause of flood damage to crops in the lower stretches on Tayside.
Burrowing banks
Beavers will burrow into riverbanks to create lodges where the conditions are right. They prefer well-wooded banks beside quieter backwaters with low energy flows for this. Burrows may extend a few metres under the bank, which can undermine the ground above, especially where it is used by cattle or farm machinery. Lightly vegetated sandy areas undermined in this way can open the exposed soil to severe erosion. It is often difficult to know the extent to which beaver burrows increase the risk of bank erosion, especially in lightly vegetated sandy areas that are already vulnerable to river erosion, but beaver burrowing may well contribute to this in some situations.
The experience of beavers elsewhere in Europe and North America has taught us a lot about how their impacts can be avoided or reduced.
The Beaver Management Framework
NatureScot operates an advice and management approach for identifying and delivering action on the ground to manage and mitigate impacts from beavers on land management. A staff team is available to provide advice, visit situations on the ground, and where needed, to implement practical steps to address beaver-related issues. Some of the main practical techniques that can be used to address impacts are outlined. This Framework was created as part of the Scottish Beaver Strategy, is fully supported by Government and is not time limited.
Avoiding flooding caused by beaver dams
There are two common techniques to prevent flooding caused in areas where beavers build dams. The first is to insert an overflow pipe into the dam which lets water escape downstream, before it overtops the stream banks. A second technique is to install fencing set out from the mouth of culverts to prevent blockages by beavers.
Lowering dams to help migrating fish
In Europe and the US, where there are concerns about beaver dams and fish migration, the relevant streams are identified in advance and any dams that appear are removed or lowered ahead of the spawning runs.
Tree protection
Fencing is used to keep beavers out of areas with sensitive or valuable trees which are close enough to a river bank that beavers might access them.
Bank protection
Taking steps to create strips of woodland along banks that might be vulnerable to burrowing can go a long way to securing them against damage. The binding effects of vegetation and the limited use by livestock protect the bank from erosion. If areas of the bank with a high likelihood of burrowing are identified, they can be safeguarded with willow ‘spiling’ or metal anti-burrowing grids.
Hierarchy of management options
There is a hierarchy of approaches to beaver management, starting with the least intrusive and leading up to lethal control as a last resort. This means that if less harmful approaches cannot address beaver impacts, trapping/relocating beavers from the catchment and lethal control will remain as available options.
