Beavering away

Our writer goes in search of some of Scotland’s returning residents: beavers who have been missing from our waterways for centuries

STEPHEN DEAL

We had been perched almost silently by the edge of a pond for nearly an hour now, binoculars focused, hoping to see a sight that hadn’t been possible in Scotland for hundreds of years. Light was fading fast on this late autumnal night in Stirlingshire when landowner, Tom Bowser, suddenly gave me a nudge and gestured to a spot just a few feet directly in front of me. There, swimming happily, was not just one but two beavers, seemingly oblivious to the presence of a dozen humans on the bank opposite. We were at Argaty, a farm estate on the outskirts of Doune, close to Stirling, watching one of two families of beavers who have helped pave the way for the reintroduction of these amazing water engineers hundreds of years…

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Scotland (Digital) - 1 Issue, May - June 2024

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