Exploring Scotland's Best Beaver Habitat
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
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Good to see a bit of natural habitat in Britain! I don’t remember if I have said this before here, but I’m Norwegian and our beaver conservation story is really remarkable. From one man (landowner) over 150 years ago conserving them when it was almost extinct everywhere to exporting beavers from the turn of the century (early 1900’s) to be released all over Europe. We had one of 4 European remnant populations. We are still sending out beavers directly and the others you have from other pockets of European beavers are crossed with the Norwegian ancestors. Go little relatives 💕
Oh thats cool! I had no idea it was the efforts of a single landowner!!
@@LeaveCurious Thank you! The state moved to conserve the beavers after the landowner did, I think in the 1880’s. But he started already around 1865 I think, and this proved crucial for the beavers. ❤️ We have many thousands of wild beavers now, and even more in Sweden which all came from the Norwegian conservation. I have read comments from someone (another norwegian) who has family still working with sending beavers to Britain and other countries.
I'm really interested in how genetic diversity is achieved - so three adult beavers and a couple of their little ones were introduced (I assume, there are various theories how they got there....) to the River Avon in Somerset a few years back - they've colonised up and down a large stretch now which is great, but it's a population based on 5 individuals and in humans that wouldn't work.
Great to hear you're doing your bit for nature in beautiful Norway. Now, could you possibly start doing something to prevent Norway culling its tiny population of wolves every year? Culling wolves in a country with a quarter of a million elk is a crime against nature. Do something about this, please.
I think genetic diversity is less of an issue with animals that reproduce frequently. The fact that here are kits born every year, two or three at a time,and start breeding quite soon, means that genes get to mutate in both good and bad ways quite rapidly. With animals like whales, or elephants, or humans, it's a different story.
I have a family of beavers building a pond in my back yard, and in general, I'm very glad to have them. At first they were flooding the entire width of our lot, effectively blocking me from about 2 acres of our land. So I built a fence across the stream to encourage them to build a dam at a particular spot (that leaves our dirt road unflooded), and now we're living together peacefully. they've flooded at least 5 acres now, and are really transforming the area. It's fun to check in and watch their progress
Guys in a nutshell 2:11. "I found a really nice stick" 😆
I hid it - going back for it when I take it home with me.
that's what the beaver said!
A cashew nutshell🥜
A cashew nutshell?
Recently, I saw bever (traces) in the south of the Netherlands and a lady walking her dog there told me she had seen them, and she was just so enthusiastic about it (rightly so). Yes, they need space, they cut trees, they flood, but the transformed landscape I saw was brilliant with so much (new) wildlife in it.
An elderly couple told me about bird species & fish they hadn't seen since childhood and that were back in the region. Bevers make the nature come back where we destroyed it all.
That’s amazing! I’m glad you have beavers helping restore your ecosystem in the Netherlands 💜
Rob it is a gift to be a lifelong student of nature. Never stop learning and passing along your knowledge and wonder.
I guess it is, thank you Mark!!
I love the idea of beavers doing their own bit of rewilding, to flood a bit more natural land to preserve it. Cashew!
Beavers do it best!!! Cheers!
Being a Canadian, beavers hold a very special place in our collective hearts. They are amazing and I love that “CRACK” you hear when you get too close to them, usually unknowingly. They smack their big, flat tails on the water as a warning to the family and to us. Cashew my friend!
Cashew! Sorry, terrible cold!! Sorry. Fantastic work you are doing, would really love to see the reintroduction of beavers as part of a national rewilding plan
Cashew! I live in BC where there are beavers everywhere and it fills my heart with joy, even if occasionally they steal a tree or two from us.❤
I saw a beaver this year on the edge of Tartu, Estonia's second city. They were basically wiped out and now I believe there are nearly 20,000 in a country around the size of Wales. Found some amazing habitat like this, lesser spotted woodpeckers, pied and spotted flycatcher and wood warblers enjoying the habitat they made.
Cashew. Love that Scotland (where I live) has so many beavers now. I'm a Kiwi who has lived in Scotland for nearly 26 years now, and am in awe of the cultural history of the country. Now I'm so happy that the natural history is being restored; just want to see the lynx, wolves, bears maybe to come back to. Keep up the good work.
I love the rewilding in Scotland, I hope more areas are restored. Do you have room for wolves and bears though? The lynx would be easier. They are very stealthy and keep away from humans and don’t get into conflicts with farmers (allthough farmers sadly still kill them). For all our faults concerning predators (which mainly relates to farming and their political influence), I’m proud of two of Norways success stories. The beaver and the white tailed eagle have been saved from the brink and are both now repopulating Scotland and other countries. When I was young we didn’t have white tailed eagles in my part of the country, but now they are even here. The first efforts with the white tailed eagles being sent abroad the young eagles got shot after arriving, I think it was in Ireland. But now farmers and other people seems to have learned they don’t pose a threat.
Just adding I absolutely love the Scottish wildcat, I really hope it can be saved.
Cashew, I've been to Schotland and I really want to return there! Greetings from Belgium!!!
Cashew! What an excellent presentation! I was born and raised on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. Oddly enough, it wasn't named for an abundance of beaver, but for its shape apparently. Regardless, it has a great deal of beaver managed wetlands. Additionally, some of the uninhabited islands in the archipelago also boast beaver who manage vast natural habitats. I've been blessed with many opportunities to see these amazing creatures in action in the wild. They certainly do a much better job of land management than we humans.
Cashew from Kazakhstan. I joined Mossy Earth recently and am happy for it.
Wetlands are really cool ecosystems. Rich and beautifull.
wish i could be a beaver
Beavers are great, I used to have a bunch of beaver chewed pieces of wood I took home from the woods when I was little. Apparently beavers eat lots of nuts and things like that so they could probably eat cashews just fine.
Your video on Scotland going green drew me in and your enthusiasm and insight has kept me. Great work. Cashew.
this was such a beautiful video, so calming. It would be lovely to allow beavers to reclaim a bit more of the UK. I've also heard a lot about how they're really helpful in dry drought/fire prone areas too- by storing the water they create an eco system, and protect the area around! I t6hink they'll be even more useful outside the UK 😂
CASHEW; I watched the first beaver lodge being built on the burn that flows from Mill Dam about a decade ago. It's been fascinating to see them spreading wetlands on the Tay river system. I rarely get to see beaver habitat these days because I live beside the Kyle of Sutherland. I hope one day someone (Mossy Earth?) will consider a reintroduction here. It's ideal habitat, already SSSI designated for marshland with abundant trees, and with little potential conflict of interest from farms, etc.
Cashew. Rob your channel is great.
As for the reintroduction of beaver, we need to find a way to have these and many other keystone creatures inhabit the world around us.
We are a fundamental part of the natural world and so are these habitat restorers. We as good land managers have the honour and responsibility to creatively balance and make room for as much biodiversity as possible.
Beaver lodges have their entrances underwater. Their living areas are in the part of the lodge that is above the water level.
In autumn they stash branches underwater around the lodge and they come out under the water (and ice) to bring the food in.
They don't hibernate but are just couch potatoes during the cold months.
Also, cashew 😊
Anytime I see video in my feed on beavers reclaiming wetlands, especially those in the American West, I always watch. It's just amazing what these little creatures can do and how quickly they revive an area. They're a great example of a keystone species. Their engineering and construction skills never cease to amaze.
Note: I'm a huge college football fan and one of the reasons I always root for Oregon State when I see them play is that their mascot is the Beaver. That is waaaaaaay cooler than having a generic mascot like "Bulldogs" or "Tigers" or "Wildcats".
Cashew! so good to see beavers successfully healing the UK
Cashew! I was a student in Connecticut, where beavers have successfully returned after long absence. Their impact on the river off campus is incredible: They've created a whole marsh-meadow, where we've found a diverse array of invertebrates, reptiles, and small mammals living among the water and the regenerating alder. I hope they continue to return to their habitat across Europe and North America!!
The beavers on 'our' stretch of river in Somerset had a lovely time in the recent floods - managed to get up higher along the bank than they would normally dare and had a lovely snack on some alder trees and nibbled the bases of a few older trees they'd previously ignored. We don't mind, it's fascinating to see the signs of them on ever more remote locations to the original site. Oh, and cashew (bless you)
6:13 Woah, amazingly clear footage of that beaver, how did you manage to get so close?!
Showing the entrance to a beaver home network reminds me of sticks laid against the tree, I thought people were collecting and setting walking sticks at different trees, but I never saw people use them. It was beaver all along, and they place many walking sticks around, not just felled trees.
Cashew’s… always Cashew’s. Thank you 🙏🏻 Rob 💙🤍 for sharing some of 💙🤍 Scotland 🏴 with us again today! You have a Beautiful motherland 💙🤍!! I appreciate how respectful that you are to her!! 💙🤍
Fun fact, there is a beaver dam in Wood Bufflao National Park in Alberta Canada that is over 850 meters long with new additions being built. The term Ecosystem Engineers barely scratches the surface of what they're capable of.
Cashew. Great video, look forward to seeing what Mossy Earth get up to on their video. Hopefully beaver reintroductions will keep happening now across the UK and we can see their impact on the landscape more.
You videos on beavers have motivated me to read about them in my area. It was very exciting to see the growing movement around this subject! It's nuts!
Hiking through land that has clear signs of beaver activity is amazing. Beavers also leave such obvious signs - other mammals, even big ones like deer, foxes, etc can be harder to spot, but it's hard to miss a beaver dam or trees that have been felled by busy beavers. There is something about the fact that you can tell the habitat changing from one week to the next that really is magical.
I should probably hike more 😆 I haven’t seen their engineering, but I’m happy that I have seen a beaver in the wild in my part of the country (Norway) on a rare occasion I was on a hike for a few days. It was just swimming on the other side of a small lake from us.
@@blue2mato312I'm very envious of your sighting of a beaver! An avid amateur wildlife photographer, I've been wanting to get good sightings of beavers, but they have proven to be very secretive. Hopefully this summer will bring some new sighting opportunities.
And yes, we should all hike more! It is such a good way to wind down, relax, and get some exercise in at the same time.
Yes absolutely we should go hiking, but perhaps not start directly from the couch to a really long trip with a heavy backpack for some days walking 😂 At least not with hills and slippery roots and rocks. Sounds lovely to be a wildlife photographer, I hope you see them next time! Yes they are quite elusive so we were lucky. There were no people at all in the area me and my friend walked that autumn. In fact we didn’t have much cell phone reception either even though we weren’t extremely far from people. We have a system of simple cabins you can walk from one to another, and we walked between some of them. Where do you live or photograph?
@@blue2mato312I'm from belgium, so most of the wildlife I photograph is local, smaller birds etc. Lots of beavers near by though, so kind of dissapointing I haven't seen them yet! Soon!
Cashew! Of course I watched to the end!
I begin to think winter walking is the way I can become an appreciator of wetlands.
No bugs, firm enough soil to not sink, fewer pesky humans!
We have done so much damage to our river systems, straightening and culverting rivers for our convenience and this has contributed to the problems with flooding. Beavers are true engineers and could help us in so many ways manage water and perhaps prevent flooding by daming water and diverting it in vulnerable areas. I understand that in Scotland though they are barely tolerated and under law can be hunted. This is so short-sighted. We need to embrace this creature who understands more about the use and management of water than the rest of us put together. Love your videos and those created for Mossy Earth. Keep up the good work. Well done. Debs
.
Cashew! I lust love beavers, but I reckon another thing people dislike about them is that the environment they create is messy. I remember reading a comment in a video about the Knepp Estate where the writer said how scruffy the rewilded area looked. You could tell that they were itching to get in there with a strimmer. Personally, I think it is glorious that beavers are back in Britain. Dead trees are essential habitat for so many life forms; indeed, a dead tree is still perfroming just as important a role in Nature as it did when it was alive, but again, our desire for order and tidiness means we tend to clear them away. I think the word you used - 'dynamic' - sums it up perfectly. I envy you being able to see beaver habitat. They'd do well here in New Zealand, but I can't imagine our ecosystem would welcome them! They've created devastation in Chile!
Cashew ! Love your videos. Great education.
Blessings to you & all.
Liliane
there's a decent length of a river that passes through my hometown that is being rewilded for a few years now, and I came back to my parents' during winter break and went out for a walk at dusk and saw a beaver just swimming along for the first time! I'd seen muskrats there, but this was clearly a much bigger animal, and I was so glad to see they're returning to their habitat, and it's good to know I wasn't going crazy when I found a young tree stump that looked like it had been chewed and felled by some rodent and immediately thought of beavers returning.
on an unrelated note: I love cashews
When I was a child, the local pond froze solid one winter, and we were able to walk all the way out to the beaver lodge in the middle of it, and sit right on the lodge. Once in a lifetime experience, I'll never forget it. We didn't have any cashews for them though.
Watching you navigate this wetland and excitedly point out significant features is endearing. I feel like I just watched a cute educational video on public television 🥰
Love seeing this wilderness, I think people dont realize how pretty it can be in the winter
I'm a Mossy Earth member and think beavers ought to be encouraged and protected, especially in Scotland. I love to eat cashews and I wonder if beavers would like them too 🤣
Cashew from Queensland but formerly from Scotland. Great seeing the beavers are doing well.
Aw this is great. I live in New Zealand and as much as I would like beavers here, maybe they can work their magic in their natural habits. Cashew ❤
I would like to see them back in anatolia and eastern thrace. They are gone for a very long time but in Iberia and UK they are succesfully returned.
I think that plenty of trees need to be planted/ naturally regenerated before beavers get into an area. Establishing an area with willow will provide food for beavers for years to come. I could see the somerset levels being planted up ready for the arrival.of beavers! How amazing would that be!
I bet beavers would love a cashew.
This video actually got me thinking of a remote pond nearby my old house in the States that had beaver activity but it seemed the rangers were keeping them out. It would be a great opportunity to pitch them letting the beavers have it to create diversity.
This is a really great site, there is some great beaver habitat in England as well. It would be very interesting to see a video where you visit one of these sites in the English countryside.
Scottish highlands can often feel remote and detached from people. But I think it’s also really important to show how these habitats can co-exist with the densely populated English countryside and even protect villages from flooding. And this could be another interesting topic you could cover regarding beaver habitat and how it parallels to the wider scopes of the Scottish projects.
Spain’s Hall in Essex comes to mind! Also …. Cashew
Cashew as in peecashuw
wow amazing spot. so much space for the beaver.
Here in holland beavers were extinct, reintroduced and so successful that they indeed cause problems. Damaging old beech trees, drowning old growths and worst of all, digging in dikes and disrupting anthropogenic waterworks which we dutch are so proud of. So - I am always thrilled then I spot one, which is very rare. But there are many of them now, and we didn't really thought things trough when reintroducing. Like always when tinkering with natural systems... (Kolbert - Under a white sky)
Cheers top-notch vlogging this.
Cashew in the next one 😂 I love the idea of beavers, we have a small enclosure in Cheshire in the Delamere forest that has beavers. I can foresee dogs being an issue if they became truly wild. In fact, I’d love a video exploring how pets and wild animals might interact in a rewilded ecosystem!
Yeah this would be interesting to see!!
Cashew haha! Great video. There’s an article in the Guardian today about how human engineering is not going to stop the flooding of the Severn river. Sounds like they need some beavers in the head waters!
Lol I was actually literally eating cashew chicken while watching this. Cashew! Great video! I definitely think we should bring back beavers to the UK on a larger scale 🦫
Cashew! Interesting to see this video, and I hope you revisit it in the summer to show us how it's changed and the wildlife in it. I live in western Massachusetts, USA, and we have no shortage of beavers here.
Cashshew - to you too ! - retired writer art director - ex bbc C4 - have you and MEh considered aproaching C4 - they do have a wildlife team and general interest - maybe a series of five or six different types of projects - 40 minute programmes - start with rough notes - keep it simple each short/ each programme should fit on one side of A4 - add pics/drawings - like notes - trees birds insects mammals fish fungi reptiles - so it has a running theme - they know how to do all the technical parts ...
I am all for beavers the stop whole scale flooding at times of heavy rainfall. What an ecosystem. Cashew.
Cashew.... Love these quick contents episodes and yes on more beavers. I think if man has nearly wiped a creature off the planet we own the remaining ones every single change to thrive.
Great that you're enjoying Scotland. My home country....Cashew!
Many beautiful areas to explore!
Be the Beaver! \o/
Cashew! Love Beavers, excited by their reintroduction into the UK. Hopefully the efforts are stepped up :)
Cashew! I love your videos dude. They're encouraging and your enthusiasm is infectious. I'm starting to think about looking into volunteering for rewilding and permaculture projects by watching you and mossy earth, and that's coming from a middle aged couch potato.
Thanks dude - get involved whatever way you can!
Cashew! Always watch to the end of Leave Curious and Mossy earth, always lesrn something and gives me some hope for the future 😊
Beavers - engineers of nature 😊
nothing does it quite like a beaver!
I’m very excited to have beavers on my property! people in my area hate them because they’ve removed all the willow from the wetlands so they go up to orchards for food. me and my kids have been planting willow and we’re ramping up to plant more as well as clear out invasive canary reed grass which really damages habitat.
Love to see the beaver habitats showcased like this, and would love to see them reintroduced to my local area. But then I don't think I'll ever Cashew down here!
Wonderful video.
I’ve been a big fan of beavers since my childhood. Fascinating creatures and engineers of the animal world. We do have projects in the Netherlands where beavers are reintroduced and those are quite successful.
And I do like cashews as well 😊
Lovely video Rob, that’s one amazing habitat. So rare to see something genuinely wild in the UK. Was reading an article today about the way that flooding on the Severn is now so severe that flood defences can no longer cope. Just imagine if the Welsh uplands were full of beavers. Not only would they help prevent flooding but improve water quality as well. I don’t like thinking of introducing wildlife for utilitarian reasons, but turn it on its head, how much we harm ourselves when we destroy nature. Cashew😂
Cashew. I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA and these videos have really helped me appreciate the wildlife we have. I'm in the city proper but about 1/2 a mile from the Missisippi, so we get alot of animals you wouldn't expect. More than once I've seen a coyote on the block where I live. There's deer and wild turkeys , possums, eagles and hawks.
I've been to Great Britain but didn't realize how devoid of wildlife it is at the time. The idea that folks may prefer that kind of sterile environment is not something I really understand.
As a Dutch born kid I was playing on the edge of development of the polders and making dams. Once i got a little more educated I learned that Native People had totem animals and Beavers Immediately came into my soul as family-loyal-co-operative-and almost always keeping ecosystems as diverse as possible. Hopefully after mankind succumbs to chaos beavers will bring back some of Gaia's Norms🦫🦫🦫🦫
cashew - I live in Oregon whose motto is "the beaver state" and we live among beavers as the norm. Even in urban Portland where I live we have beaver activity. There is a park near me called Errol Heights Park where the city struggled with mitigating beaver dam flooding over the years (inserting drainage pipes to keep the damn level consistent) but decided to try letting it go and now it has become a beautiful spring fed lake in the city, teeming with wildlife.
Cashew from the Olympic peninsula! Also a place of amazing wetlands
From my 80-acre, forested property in the Willamette Valley -- in the Beaver State of Oregon; Cashew!
The beaver has been reintroduced in the Dutch province of Limburg roughly 20 years ago and its numbers are now estimated at around 2000. This large population also brings with it some problems AND means that relocation of problematic beavers within the province is not an option. Other provinces don't want them anymore either so the only option for relocation would be reintroduction projects abroad. I believe there was a plan to ship some to the UK some years ago but that ultimately didn't go through IIRC.
As for the problems, the beavers obviously don't play too well with the very structured Dutch water system and can cause threats or damage to infrastructure. As you've said yourself they can also cause flooding of agricultural land. An often overlooked issue is that while the beaver does amazing things to transform its surroundings to its preferred habitat, it destroys the preferred habitat of other species. An example in Limburg would be turning the faster flowing spring-fed streams in the hilly south of the province into nearly stagnant pools with layers of silt instead of clean substrates of sand and gravel, threatening certain species of fish and macro invertebrates which are already fairly rare in the Netherlands.
Now much of this wouldn't be a problem if the nature in the Netherlands wasn't a patchwork of small areas inbetween built-up and agricultural land but that is the reality we live in. Hopefully it will improve in the future, the current nitrogen crisis and upcoming water quality crisis (in 2027 all waterbodies in the EU must be of ok quality, which isn't going to happen but actions still have to be taken to work towards that) might help with that.
Some truly gorgeous photography!
Cashew
Yes. Rosheanne puts culverts in where land might flood which they don't want to flood and I'm sure farmers can get compo as well.
Always love the videos mate. It's exciting to see beavers here in the UK. We have a small population in an enclosure in Norfolk (Wild Ken Hill), but I've not had the chance to go and see them yet. Looking forward to seeing more of these little guys around in my lifetime
I think it would be absolutely great to see beavers return to Britain, and as always thank you for making this lovely video
Its time to come back and see the life exploding in beaver town 😻
Imagine the huge amount of beaver pelts sent to England and Europe for hats from Canada all those years ago. Good to see they are surviving.
And of course, before them coming to UK from Canada, they were coming from the Highlands of Scotland - from places just like in this video!
Thank you Rob! Yes please come back and film the same area in summer (with midge repellent). Let's see how many of those chewed trees start coppicing. I'm hugely enthusiastic about seeing more beavers here in the UK. If a dam grows too high there's this thing called a beaver deceiver that I think is basically a drain you can install within it, that stops the pool from growing any larger. Hopefully we'll get past culture wars and start to see the benefits to people and the wider natural world.
yeah heard about those beaver deceivers! lots of smart ways or working with beavers!
cashew, very interesting, having lots of small dams is a way to refresh aquifers. it used to be done in India aa lot, many foot or so high dams along a river, holding back the water for a while to let it trickle down into the earth,
That's cool
Cashew, all the vids plus the mossy earth ones, so good to see people, and beavers, making such a difference 🙌
Cashew! Beavers in Australia is an interesting idea. I like to imagine they’d run into a platypus in the wild, and they’d look each other up and down a bit confused then get on with their day. Maybe beaver dams would make a good habitat for the platypus even?
I'd definitely love to see more beavers in North America. It seems like most restoration is happening in the Pacific Northwest, but I'd love to see them returned more to the central part of the country, especially along the bajillion tributaries to the Mississippi. And I'd love to see more on the East Coast. I know there's been a lot of (human) dam removal going on. I'd love to see some more natural, beaver damming going on in some of the same regions.
Great CASHEW video. That beaver area was so nice to see
I always watch all of your videos to the very last word
Cashew , always watch to the end and always glad to see rewilding in action.
You know what changed my life, and I kid you not: Roasting cashews to use them as toppings for yoghurts and salads.
I absolutely love this stuff and I hope to see them reintroduce back into Long Island's wetlands! Cashew!
What created the great American landscapes? 300 million beavers.
Bring 'em back! Everywhere.
These videos are a dose of medicine, thank you.
Damn... These beavers sure love their cashews.
A video about beaver wetlands could go in so many directions.
Cashew. It would be interesting to learn how Palliser’s Triangle in Alberta and Saskatchewan 🇨🇦 was influenced by the beaver hunting in Canada after the European beaver was devastated. Southern Alberta is facing water insecurity and it would be interesting to learn if beavers are supposed to be here managing water supplies.
Cashew...love you're videos! Great to see you're leadership skills and tacit understanding of compexity in the ecology of systems within nature really shining through. It is easy to be a noisy activist and granted, that too can be effective as a strategy, but long term sustainability requires a robust and considered approach and I commend you're dedication to the importance of understanding. Keep up the good work!
Cashew. Great video and I'll be checking out your other videos and projects
Hope we get lots more beavers in the UK! *Cashew!*
Yum, I love cashews! Your beaver pose at 6:12 was hilarious 🤣
Superb Im a subscriber of mossy earth
I have seen beaver activity here in Dorset !!!
Cashew later 😅
Another great video. I love watching your work. I look forward to it. Keep going. Such interesting content.
Cashew. Of course I watched till the end. You're great! Your material is brilliant. You also include breathtaking scenery, which makes your videos even better, though I'm sure you have to make use of whatever sunshiny days happen to capture those beautiful sunny landscapes. And you don't get too many of those sunny days in Scotland, do you?
Cashews and beavers. Love them both.
Love your channel. Thanks for posting this