managed by the Hawk and Owl Trust, is just three miles away upstream along the River Wensum from Pensthorpe.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n\n ![]()
The Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve (Image: Ian Burt)\n<\/p>\n
\n Earlier this year, the Hawk and Owl Trust revealed the pair of Eurasian beavers had birthed two kits following the successful reintroduction.\n<\/p>\n
\n Beavers are known to have been introduced at the River Glaven, which is about nine miles away at its nearest point in Hunworth, near Holt.\n<\/p>\n
\n The rodents, which are being brought back to the UK to help manage flooding, have also been released at Wild Ken Hill near Heacham, about 17 miles away.\n<\/p>\n
\n ![]()
The beaver has been hard at work at Pensthorpe (Image: Pensthorpe Natural Park)\n<\/p>\n
\n Due to the close proximity of the beaver spotting, locals are speculating that the wild beaver may have escaped from Sculthorpe Moor before travelling downstream.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, Adrian Blumfield, operations director at the Hawk and Owl Trust, dismissed the claims.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cSince 2022, the Hawk and Owl Trust\u2019s Sculthorpe Moor nature reserve has been home to a thriving colony of beavers.\n<\/p>\n
\n “These were introduced under licence from Natural England as part of our conservation activities. To support their wellbeing, the beavers are humanely trapped each year for a health inspection, and microchips are used to track each animal.\n<\/p>\n
\n “The beavers at Sculthorpe Moor live within a secure enclosure to prevent them from wild roaming.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Based on checks conducted by our rangers, there is nothing that suggests\u00a0the beaver at Pensthorpe originated from our colony.\n<\/p>\n
\n “However, we have offered assistance to Natural England if they decide that it should be trapped and placed within a licensed enclosure.”\n<\/p>\n
\n ![]()
Beavers are known for building dams (Image: Pensthorpe Natural Park)\n<\/p>\n
\n However, Natural England says it has likely escaped from a licensed enclosure and staff are working with Pensthorpe to understand where the beaver has come from.\n<\/p>\n
\n Spokeswoman Fiona Hinds said: \u201cWe are working with Pensthorpe Nature Reserve and the Beaver Trust to investigate reports of a sighting of a beaver on the reserve.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are working closely with partners to identify the origin of the animal and to ensure its welfare.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Beavers are semi-aquatic and live in river systems and are known as “river engineers” as they help manage the flow of water by creating dams.\n<\/p>\n
\n They could play a vital role in restoring wetland landscapes through creating ponds, channels and wet woodland habitats that benefit amphibians, insects, fish and countless bird species.\n<\/p>\n
\n The rodents can swim at speeds of up to five miles per hour.\n<\/p>\n
\n Beavers are known to travel long distances to set up new territories but it would appear quite the expedition for a beaver to have travelled from Hunworth or Heacham to reach Pensthorpe.\n<\/p>\n
\n A spokeswoman for the Beaver Trust said there are “numerous beavers moving through our landscapes, so the beaver that has been spotted could be a naturally dispersing individual” rather than an escapee.\n<\/p>\n
\n Beavers became extinct in Britain in the 16th century due to over-hunting, but have been reintroduced to Norfolk via captive release schemes in recent years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But locals are speculating whether the first beaver to be spotted in the wild for centuries may in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-302171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/296356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}