James Nash spotted a beaver making its way up the River Avon just outside Bradford on Avon early one morning in late April.
Although the Bradford on Avon resident, who captains the rowing club and spends a lot of time out on the water, has frequently seen otters in the area, as well as evidence of resident beavers, he said that was the first time he had seen one of the latter with his own eyes.
Mr Nash explained: “I was down by the river one morning, and saw it swimming along and thought ‘what’s that?’
“We’ve had otters down there for as long as I’ve been down here, which is 12 years. More recently, over the last couple of years, we’ve noticed signs of beavers. We noticed the trees, the classic bite marks.
“But we haven’t seen them until I shot them on video. They’ve been making along bank gnawing a lot of trees. I think it’s the willows they prefer, and they’ve brought down plenty of eight to 10 inch branches.”
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Mr Nash said stories of beaver sightings are a not an especially rare phenomenon these days, but added that it is nonetheless a thrill to see one for himself.
He continued: “It’s great. We’ve seen all sorts of things…I still get excited when I see otters swimming around, but it’s good to see a beaver, because we’ve seen evidence of them for a long time now.”
As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service in September last year, beavers appear to have very quietly returned to Wiltshire for the first time in centuries.
Buried in the draft of the 177-page Wiltshire and Swindon Local Nature Recovery Strategy, a section on the Bristol Avon Vale concludes: “Semington Brook, a tributary of the Avon, supports a free-living beaver population, contributing to wetland restoration and biodiversity.”
Europe’s largest rodents are native to the UK but were hunted to extinction 400 years ago. In February, the government announced that applications by conservation organisations to return beavers English rivers will be accepted.
The report says the reintroduction of beavers, whose dams slow fast-flowing rivers, could help reduce instances of flooding in vulnerable communities like Malmesbury, Lacock, Bradford on Avon, and Salisbury.