| Clip courtesy of ITV Meridian | |
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Kent home for beaver family
A family of five European beaver has been successfully released into South East England’s last remaining ancient fenland at Kent Wildlife Trust’s Ham Fen Nature Reserve, near Sandwich.
The two adults - a gift from the German Government in January this year - were quarantined at the Wildwood Trust Woodland Discovery Park near Canterbury where they produced three babies (or kits) in the spring.
On 29th September, the family was transported to its new home at Ham Fen where they were released into an artificial lodge made from straw bales next to a pond in a temporary enclosure.
Once they have acclimatised to their new surroundings they will be released into the wider 30-hectare nature reserve.
East Kent Reserves Officer and architect behind the project for Kent Wildlife Trust, John McAllister, said: “This is the second phase of The Ham Fen Beaver Project which has seen the first European beaver in over 300 years living naturally in the UK.
“The project is unique in that beaver are being used as conservation management tools and part of a programme designed to protect and restore this rare fenland habitat.”
Beaver are classified as a ‘keystone’ species helping support the ecosystem of which they are a part. They create water bodies, coppice waterside trees and shrubs; graze aquatic vegetation; and their physical presence helps keep waterways open. All of this creates a raft of habitats to benefit wetland plants and creatures such as frogs, newts, voles, shrews and dragonflies - some species of which can only be found in Ham Fen.
The programme is supported and licensed by the Government’s conservation body, Natural England.
Kent Wildlife Trust and Wildwood Trust, who first brought the European beaver into the UK in 2001, have pioneered the use of beaver as a wildlife conservation tool. The success of this project has provided the inspiration behind other projects in Gloucestershire and Scotland.
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