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Beaver devastation??

S

Simon Haggis

Senior Member
Just watched a channel 4 news piece on escaped beavers on a river in Devon.

An ecologist saying let's have a debate, they shouldn't be in a concrete zoo but should be in the wild what harm can they really do, and the chief exec of the angling trust saying dams will wreak havoc for migrating salmon and trout.

Here we go again..
 
If these animals are the offspring of others that escaped from a private collection as the article claims why was the escape not reported to the authorities? I don't believe a word of it.
 
Graham Young said:
If these animals are the offspring of others that escaped from a private collection as the article claims why was the escape not reported to the authorities? I don't believe a word of it.
Click to expand...

How do you know that they weren't reported? And there is also the possibility that the escapes weren't noticed. I guess that wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility.

Straw man Graham.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
How do you know that they weren't reported? And there is also the possibility that the escapes weren't noticed. I guess that wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility.

Straw man Graham.
Click to expand...



I fail to understand your need to make the comment you have at the end of your post, takes all sorts I suppose.

In answer to your question, if the "escapes" were reported the animals would have been captured not just left out there to breed.

"A possibility that the escapes weren't noticed" are you kidding, I am sure that anyone with Beavers in a collection would know how many they have and even more sure that if some went missing they would notice.

Even stranger that these unnoticed escapees just happened to be both male and female enabling them to breed.

Escaped my backside!!!
 
Farmers and foresters would obviously not take kindly to Beavers interfering with their work but as anglers I don't think we have much to fear.
Beaver ponds in the U.S. are much prized features on their river systems and I'm pretty sure there would be much protesting if there were moves to eradicate Beavers, as they have been here.
I am reminded of the massive improvement to the fishing on the Colne on the M1 to Bushey arches stretch when a few small ponds connected to the river were constructed. The fry and other fish now had somewhere to shelter when necessary and in a few years it became a very productive, densely populated stretch of river.
Similarly another pond connected to a river was dug out on a club water and now provides excellent fishing itself and the river has benefited enormously too.
Sadly the Colne stretch is public access and is harvested regularly by the EE's nowadays.
Perhaps beaver dams would restore the balance of nature a bit better and give the fish somewhere to shelter from the otters!
 
I am a memeber of the Angling trust and would urge them to reconsider their stance on the beaver - seriously and quickly.
 
Graham Young said:
I fail to understand your need to make the comment you have at the end of your post, takes all sorts I suppose.

In answer to your question, if the "escapes" were reported the animals would have been captured not just left out there to breed.

"A possibility that the escapes weren't noticed" are you kidding, I am sure that anyone with Beavers in a collection would know how many they have and even more sure that if some went missing they would notice.

Even stranger that these unnoticed escapees just happened to be both male and female enabling them to breed.

Escaped my backside!!!
Click to expand...

"if the "escapes" were reported the animals would have been captured not just left out there to breed". Is it that straightforward to capture escaped beavers? I wouldn't have thought so, but then it's not something I've ever tried!

"I am sure that anyone with Beavers in a collection would know how many they have and even more sure that if some went missing they would notice". Would they know the exact number of offspring their beavers had reared? I ask because I'm mindful that some collector's keep them in very large pens eg. >5 acres. Given the likely terrain, e.g. a mosaic of ponds, trees and scrub, I wonder how easy it would be to keep tabs? I guess it could be some time before an escapee was noticed.

I guess there is also the possibility of the keeper, once they've noticed an escape, decided not to report it for fear of incurring the wrath of Defra...and the Angling Trust!

Presumably they should be able to work out the source of the escapees by DNA?
 
To be honest, I was slightly disappointed about the content of the thread based upon the the title.

I was expecting a "Brazilian" based discussion.

:)
 
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