{"id":602931,"date":"2026-08-24T08:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T08:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/602931\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T08:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T08:32:14","slug":"wild-beaver-kits-born-in-norfolk-for-first-time-in-more-than-500-years-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/602931\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild beaver kits born in Norfolk for first time in more than 500 years | Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wild beaver kits have been born in Norfolk<\/a> for the first time in more than 500 years.<\/p>\n

The pair of newborns are the offspring of two free-living beavers who mysteriously arrived in Pensthorpe nature reserve<\/a> near Fakenham in December.<\/p>\n

This couple, who have built a lodge on the River Wensum, were the first wild beavers recorded in Norfolk<\/a> since the native species was hunted to extinction in England at the beginning of the 16th century.<\/p>\n

How they got to the Wensum remains a mystery. Although beavers have re-established themselves in the English countryside since 2015, the nearest population of wild beavers is thought to be more than 130 miles away, on the River Stour in Kent.<\/p>\n

.<\/a><\/p>\n

Some suspect the breeding pair were illegally released by conservation activists, a practice known as beaver bombing<\/a> which Pensthorpe does not support, said the reserve\u2019s manager, Richard Spowage.<\/p>\n

However, he welcomed the arrival of the \u201cvery playful\u201d kits, which are thought to be about three months old. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Viewing camera trap footage and discovering the kits had been born were moments of intense joy, he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initially saw a single young one with a parent, just pottering around, doing little beaver things, chewing on little bits of branch and leaf. And then, in a later piece of footage, it went off \u2026 and suddenly it came running back, and a second kit was running after it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BeaverBeaver kit seen in Norfolk<\/p>\n

The kits appear to enjoy feeding on willow and water mint, but not everything on the menu in Norfolk has proved a hit. \u201cOne got stung by a nettle, we think, because it reacted really suddenly, jumped back and started shaking its face.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are already becoming very independent, and have been learning how to dive into the river and tailslap its surface to make a big bang when they want to scare off a predator. \u201cWe\u2019ve got footage of an adult tailslapping against an otter \u2026 and one of the little ones is able to do that now, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the beavers live in a secret, inaccessible location in the nature reserve, they may expand their territory and become more visible to visitors in the future, he said.<\/p>\n

The birth of the kits presents a conundrum, because they will have no mates to breed with in the future except their parents and siblings. \u201cYou can\u2019t have just one family in the river system,\u201d said Spowage. \u201cYou need a wider genetic pool.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reserve is now crowdfunding so that it can apply to the government advisory body, Natural England<\/a>, for permission to legally introduce more wild beavers into the Wensum, which feeds into the Norfolk Broads.<\/p>\n

It will be an expensive project, involving studies of the river system, staff training and discussions with multiple stakeholders, but Spowage is hoping all hurdles can be overcome so Norfolk\u2019s first family of wild beavers can thrive: \u201cIf we can introduce other beavers, then they will interbreed and the population will expand properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Farmers have traditionally opposed beaver reintroduction in the UK over fears their dams could flood fields and damage crops. But during the heatwave, one farmer told the Guardian<\/a> that his best asset has been a family of beavers who have built a reservoir on his land that contains 3m litres of water.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat\u2019s happening now is there are landowners suddenly realising that when they do have beavers, the beavers are holding back and managing water, which is valuable for farmland in our current climate,\u201d said Spowage.<\/p>\n

Introducing more beavers into the Wensum would be a way for the government to lead on species recovery, he added, and would help to alleviate the frustration many conservationists feel about the speed and scale of legal beaver releases in the UK<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So far, the impact of the beavers on the reserve has been minimal: \u201cThey haven\u2019t made any dams or built anything on the river. The only things they\u2019ve been doing is clearing trees a bit and digging tiny little channels off to the sides of the river.\u201d<\/p>\n

By thinning some of the nearby woodland, the beavers have opened up the reserve\u2019s rich fen habitat, allowing more light to reach the forest floor and encouraging plant growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat means more food \u2013 not just for them, but for all wildlife \u2026 they\u2019re doing things we were doing as humans in our management plan, but we were doing it quite poorly, and they are doing it really well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blue tits, great tits, blackcaps, water rails, jays, mallards, ducklings, foxes, otters and roe deer have all been recorded using or drinking from the shallow 30cm-wide river channels created by the beavers.<\/p>\n

Natural England spokesperson Matt Heard said: \u201cWe are working with Pensthorpe nature reserve, the Beaver Trust<\/a> and other stakeholders to ensure the welfare of the animals, and to develop a plan of action.<\/p>\n

\u201cReintroducing beavers to our landscapes makes a huge difference to nature\u2019s recovery and where releases are managed carefully, they can secure long-term environmental benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wild beaver kits have been born in Norfolk for the first time in more than 500 years. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":602932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-602931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/602932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}