ARMERS and landowners have legally killed around one hundred wild beavers in Tayside, The Ferret can reveal. Campaigners have condemned the killings as “shameful” and “sickening” and are demanding that beavers be moved rather than shot. Scottish ministers are now likely to face questions about the deaths. The official number killed under licence in 2019 […]
Tag: Beaver
Scottish ministers urged to honour pledge to protect beavers
Wildlife experts have said wild beavers in Scotland are being trapped and shot because ministers have broken promises to make them a protected species. A group of 17 prominent ecologists and conservation bodies have signed a letter to the Guardian urging the Scottish government to honour its pledge two years ago to legislate to protect […]
Humanity is ‘cutting down the tree of life’, warn scientists
Humanity’s ongoing annihilation of wildlife is cutting down the tree of life, including the branch we are sitting on, according to a stark new analysis. More than 300 different mammal species have been eradicated by human activities. The new research calculates the total unique evolutionary history that has been lost as a result at a […]
POLL: Should California be allowed to exterminate the nutria?
The call came from a wildlife trapper working in the wetlands of central California. “I think I caught a nutria,” the man said. Greg Gerstenberg, a state biologist, was thrown.“I was like, ‘a what?’” A year and a half later, Gerstenberg strode up to his waist into the sludgey wetlands, pulling a kayak through mats […]
Beaver
An unexpected sighting last week was a Beaver at very close range in the middle of the day. I have seen a few signs recently that Beavers are out and about despite the snow and ice (which must make it difficult for them to come in and out of their lodges). Seeing the animal today […]
POLL: Should the Beaver be “Rewilded” in the UK?
For the first time in 400 years, beavers will be reintroduced to the Forest of Dean in a major trial project. Two adult beavers and two juveniles — known as kits — will be released into a 6.5 hectare enclosure in Lydbrook, England. This may be the first of several such rewilding schemes, as the […]
POLL: Should the Eurasian beaver be “re-wilded”?
The extraordinary ability of eager beavers to engineer degraded land into wildlife-rich wetlands has been revealed by a new study in Scotland. Scientists studied the work of a group of four re-introduced beavers over a decade and found their water engineering prowess created almost 200m of dams, 500m of canals and an acre of ponds. […]
POLL: Should Trump disband USDA Wildlife “Killing” Services?
Despite persistent outrage from the public, the U.S. government killed 2.7 million wild animals in 2016 — and almost 1.6 million were native wildlife, according to data released this week. That’s roughly five animals every minute. Even after scientific investigations by a team of ecologists cast serious doubts around the necessity of these killings, Wildlife […]