Cornwall countryside 'kidnapping' of beavers not what it seemed

Robin Hanbury-Tenison (left) and his son Merlin releasing a beaver onto their nature reserve near Bodmin
-Credit:SWNS.COM


An Army major now dedicating his life to conservationism and rewilding his corner of Cornwall has written about his neighbours "kidnapping" his beavers. Merlin Hanbury-Tenison, son of the famous explorer Robin Hanbury-Tenison, said his neighbours on the edge of Bodmin Moor kept the two adult beavers and their three kits for themselves and did not return them to him when he is the one with a licence to reintroduce the wild animals in the first place.

In the Spectator magazine, Mr Hanbury-Tenison, who runs Cabilla Cornwall with his wife Lizzie, and runs retreats for veterans and NHS staff and carries out nature restoration and conservation work on his upland hill-farm through the Thousand Year Trust charity he has set up, admitted that the beavers have escaped six times since being reintroduced back in 2020.

He said that when they last did a runner, he was contacted by his neighbour about the escapees but when he "drove through a storm" to the coordinates he had been given, he was stopped at the cattle grid that marked his neighbour's land and was refused entry. In his article for the Spectator entitled - My Neighbour Has Kidnapped My Beavers - he claims that his neighbour decided not to allow him onto his land to trap and retrieve the beavers he said are his.

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He wrote: "I was baffled. Usually people were happy for me to come and retrieve my wards. We’d have a cup of tea and a chat about how wonderful beavers were and I’d promise to try my hardest not to let them escape again. There’d never been any thought before of anyone refusing to let me retrieve them."

He said that the two had a disagreement over whether he should be allowed to retrieve the animals but in the end he was told he would only be able to retrieve the animals if he was permitted by his neighbour to enter his land, something that was refused.

Mr Hanbury-Tenison wrote that he tried to explain that he is licensed by Natural England to recapture his beavers whenever they escaped and that if he didn’t bring them home he was breaking the law.

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He added: "His response will live with me always: ‘That sounds like a 'you' problem.’ So I am now a criminal with a beaver licence but no beavers. I have pleaded with Natural England not to prosecute me and it is considering the situation. The enclosure is growing over and the dams are beginning to silt up and break down.

"I can only hope that Sigourney, Jean Claude and their kits are happy in their new home and that one day the sight of beavers on a stretch of river or a pond will be so commonplace that neighbours won’t feel that beaver kidnapping is worth it."

Beavers make short work of tree felling
Beavers make short work of tree felling -Credit:Olivier Vergnault / Cornwall Live

We contacted Mr Hanbury-Tenison's neighbour about the whole affair and he told us that while the article was published earlier in January, the beavers first appeared on his land in June last year and when he contacted the Cornwall-based Beaver Trust, Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Natural England about it, he was told in categoric terms to do nothing and leave the animals - who are a protected species - well alone.

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"So that's exactly what I have done," he told CornwallLive. "When the beavers turned up I thought someone had beaver-bombed us by releasing a captured animal on our land whether we like it or not.

"To make it clear, we didn't kidnap any wild animals on his land. That would have meant trespassing on his property, stealing the animals and then holding him to ransom. That's the meaning of kidnapping. The beavers escaped - six times - as he admitted himself. We haven't committed any crime. We haven't done anything illegal. To say we kidnapped his beavers is simply not true. It's a lot of codswallop."

He added: "We asked the relevant authorities what we should do about the beavers and they told us to do absolutely nothing and leave the beavers alone. If the beavers escaped so many times perhaps they were not happy in that environment. We haven't enclosed them. We're letting them be and if tomorrow they want to uproot and go somewhere else, then so be it."

He added: "His article is all about deflecting the blame on others when he's failed to keep the beavers in."

The landowner, who is also working to rewild his own property, said he refused to grant Mr Hanbury-Tenison access onto his land to trap the beavers and scan them for a microchip and prove they are 'his' because he doesn't agree with trapping animals and he believes wildlife should be left wild.

File picture of a beaver swimming at a site in Cornwall
File picture of a beaver swimming at a site in Cornwall -Credit:Josh Harris / Beaver Trust

"They're wild animals," he added. "They may not even be his at all. Beavers can travel long distances. He says he owns them. But no-one owns wildlife. All he has is a licence to handle wild animals. It doesn't mean he owns them.

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"The irony of it all, is that as a conservationist he's now achieved his goal to help repopulate the river system with beavers, except he's done it by accident. That he wants them back in a cage makes no sense."

Spokespersons for the Beaver Trust and the Cornwall Wildlife Trust said they could not comment as it is a matter between the two landowners and Natural England.

Natural England said its responsibility is to issue licences, to monitor compliance with licence conditions, and to consider providing advice or taking enforcement action if licence breaches occur.

It confirmed that beaver enclosure licences include conditions which typically can be summarised as requiring secure fencing to be installed, monitored and maintained; to inform Natural England if a beaver escapes; and to recapture escaped beavers.

However, it said that it would act reasonably if there were external factors outside of the licensee’s control that caused them to be in breach of any conditions.

About ownership of beavers, a spokesperson said: "Beavers are considered wild animals and are also protected as European Protected Species. A beaver enclosure licence permits some activities that would be otherwise unlawful, such as releasing beavers into a secure enclosure, and recapturing and returning escapees."

With regards to the obligations of the landowner where the beavers have moved to, Natural England added: "Eurasian beavers are a European Protected Species under The Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 (amended) and the landowner will have to comply with all relevant aspects of this legislation which protects the beavers from harm."

Mr Hanbury-Tenison has been approached for a comment.

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