Beavers caught on camera at rewilding project in adorable footage

-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


In a dam good turn of events, Heal Somerset's resident beavers have finally made their public debut, caught canoodling on camera for the first time.

Recent footage caught by a camera trap at Heal Rewilding’s foundation rewilding site Heal Somerset on Bindon Lane just outside Frome revealed a pair of beavers together for the first time.

Speaking to Carbon Copy Podcast host Isabelle Sparrow, rewilding ranger Dan Hill could barely contain his glee as he described the two adorable rodents “canoodling” in the footage.

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Isabelle and producer Bradley Ingham joined Dan and Heal Rewilding co-founder Jan Stannard on site to record the episode, and were given a tour of the land, which has been owned by the charity since December 2022.

In addition to the excitement of the camera trap footage, Dan also showed the podcast team his latest find – a beaver dam.

“We’d been monitoring the beavers, we’d seen their signs earlier in the year, and we were keeping an eye out for them; but we would never have imagined that they would be damming this year. It’s so exciting,” Dan said.

Unlike at some other rewilding projects around the UK, the beaver pair at Heal Somerset have come to the site of their own accord, and the hope is that they will be setting up on the site for the long-term and producing young.

Beavers play an incredibly important role in water management, slowing the flow of rivers and streams and mitigating flood risk.

“(The beavers) will dam the river like this, and then the sediment builds up, plants will start colonising, more water flows, they build bigger dams and that whole process hopefully raises the bed of the river and then the water can reconnect to the flood plain like it should be.” Dan explained.

“It’s really fantastic to see how much nature has already started to repair and renew since Heal Rewilding has taken over this site,” said Isabelle. “We wanted to speak to the team here because we love the ambition of this project, and the unique approach they are taking to involving local people and businesses with their Heal 3x3 scheme. I didn’t necessarily know what to expect, but I am pretty chuffed to have seen my first ever beaver dam.”

“Heal The Wild” is the first of the Carbon Copy Podcast’s new four-part series All Nature. Listen on the Carbon Copy website, or wherever you get your podcasts.