Britain's first wild beaver for 500 years caught on camera

express.co.uk ^ | January 21, 2014 | Dion Dassanayake

[Berlin_Freeper]

THE first wild beaver seen in 500 years in the UK was caught on film gnawing on a tree.

[Vendome]

[Heavyrunner]

And the jokes just write themselves...

[Wyatt's Torch]

There it is!

[bert]

The Eurasian Beaver is hareier than it's American cousin

[oldenuff2no]

I work with wildlife habitat restoration and creation every summer. There is not reference to the planting of these animals or any program to create a new population with transplantation. All it says is that they have been instinct for several hundred years.

This makes on sense to me. If this animal were spotted and the government had transplanted it there then there would have been an acknowledgment of its existence and a warning to leave them alone. This did not happen.

The second possibility is that the animal was never extinct. To believe that means that no one has seen a beaver in the UK in the last 500 years even though there were still breeding pairs in their waterways. Sorry, that does not hold water either.

Either there is much more to this story that we do not know or the story is simply not true.

[skinkinthegrass]

do they know, from whince it swam from? ...does Northern Europe
have (animal :) native beaver; if not, it's a long swim from Canada

[DaveA37]

Someone care to explain how that beaver got the U.K.? He sure as hell didn’t hitchhike. Sounds like someone needed a new dam and couldn’t afford to build one of their own....solution import a beaver or two and dam gets built.

[katykelly]

LOL ! My husband used to have a really nasty t-shirt from Beaver liquors .

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

That's our national rodent. Better than a Democrat.

[smoothsailing]

Well, no beaver, but here's Barbara Boxer with a possum on her head.

[WinMod70]

“The Eurasian Beaver is hareier than it’s American cousin”

You’re saying more rabbit like?

[WellyP]

Just down the street!

[skinkinthegrass]

*shielding eyes*OMG! ..it's Helen Thomas.

[xrmusn]

Saw something the other day - don’t know whether Old movie, Old TV show BUT a Lady walked into the room with a fur coat on and the guy snickered “Good looking beaver” and she said Thanks but it is Mink”.

Sounds like the kind of line Mae West may have come up with OR W C Fields been involved in.
OR Blazing Saddles.

[xrmusn]

Saw something the other day - don’t know whether Old movie, Old TV show BUT a Lady walked into the room with a fur coat on and the guy snickered “Good looking beaver” and she said Thanks but it is Mink”.

Sounds like the kind of line Mae West may have come up with OR W C Fields been involved in.
OR Blazing Saddles.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Ironically, on the South American archipelago of Tierra del Fuego, there are so many beavers destroying the place that an eradication project is in process.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_eradication_in_Tierra_del_Fuego

[Vendome]

I just pulled both the Liquor and Diver shirts from my closet.

I love wearing them when I’m snowboarding.

Great conversation at the bar with gals....

LOL

[Slings and Arrows]

---

[central_va]

I have probably a dozen beavers on my land, I can tell from the trees damaged and their little islands on my pond/lake. I HAVE NEVER seen one in the day time. One time a night I saw one swimming. THEY ARE VERY SHY ANIMALS.

[12th_Monkey]

“Wynona’s got herself a big brown beaver
and she shows it off to all her friends.
One day, you know, that beaver tried to leave her,
So she caged him up with cyclone fence.
Along came Lou with the old baboon
And said “Recognize that smell?”
“Smells like seven layers,
That beaver eats Taco Bell.”