{"id":179199,"date":"2025-12-11T23:40:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/179199\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T23:40:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T23:40:08","slug":"wild-beavers-may-have-spread-further-than-we-realise-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/179199\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild beavers may have spread further than we realise | Wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">In your article (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/dec\/07\/no-one-knows-where-it-came-from-first-wild-beaver-spotted-in-norfolk-for-400-years\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018No one knows where it came from\u2019: first wild beaver spotted in Norfolk in 500 years, 7 December<\/a>), you quote the Beaver Trust as saying that, as well as Norfolk, wild beavers have been spotted in Kent, Hampshire, Somerset, Wiltshire and Herefordshire.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">I can tell you that we also have beavers in Berkshire. I live by the River Kennet and I caught one on my garden trail camera in August, along with otters in the same 30-second clip. The identification of the beaver is unmistakable, and was confirmed by the Berks, Bucks and Oxon wildlife trust. Two weeks ago, my neighbour caught a beaver on her garden trail camera. Her garden is 50 yards downstream of ours.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Two independent beaver sightings three months apart suggest that the beaver or beavers are resident. I have heard anecdotally of beaver gnawings in the area, but I cannot confirm that. There are beavers in captivity at Ewhurst Park 10 miles away, but inquiries with them have confirmed that they have not had any escapees.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Perhaps wild beavers are more widespread than anyone, including the Beaver Trust, realises.<br \/>Richard Foster<br \/>Thatcham, Berkshire<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\"> Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2025\/dec\/11\/mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\" data-link-name=\"in body link \" https:=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">email<\/a> us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">letters<\/a> section.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In your article (\u2018No one knows where it came from\u2019: first wild beaver spotted in Norfolk in 500&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179200,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-179199","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179199\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}