{"id":330816,"date":"2025-12-23T02:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T02:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/330816\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T02:05:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T02:05:09","slug":"beaminster-mapperton-estate-introduces-two-new-beavers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/330816\/","title":{"rendered":"Beaminster: Mapperton Estate introduces two new beavers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  Chip and Willow the beavers have arrived at the Mapperton Estate near Beaminster and are getting to know each other in their purpose-built enclosure in the Mapperton Wildlands.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The Beaver Trust organised the delivery of Chip who hails from Yorkshire, and Willow from the River Tay in Scotland.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Chip and Willow making themselves at home at Mapperton (Image: Sam Rose)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The pair of Eurasian beavers are both around two years old and the team at Mapperton hope that as healthy young adults the newcomers will bond and eventually mate.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  They are not the first beavers to live at Mapperton. Woody and Twiggy, who arrived in 2022, made headlines <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridportnews.co.uk\/news\/24882793.dorset-rewilding-beavers-woody-twiggy-escape-storm\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">in January when they went on the run and escaped just over a year ago following severe storms.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Woody and Twiggy arrived at Mapperton also seized the opportunity to escape in 2023 when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridportnews.co.uk\/news\/23251031.beavers-escape-mapperton-estate-storm-hit-enclosure\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a storm damaged their fenced enclosure and the public appeal was launched to find them<\/a>. They were bribed to return with apples and parsnips.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Luke Montagu, the Earl of Sandwich, says that the estate will make sure this does not happen again: \u201cSince then, we have made lots of reinforcements to the beaver enclosure, in particular to the area around the grille in the stream, which was smashed by rocks and logs during the storms. Now it\u2019s a fortress.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Luke Montagu (left) and the team delivering the beavers to their new home at Mapperton. (Image: Sam Rose)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bridportnews.co.uk\/news\/24008099.mapperton-estate-third-stunning-rewilding-project-uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">READ:\u00a0Mapperton Estate third most stunning rewilding project in\u00a0UK<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cChip and Willow don\u2019t know each other, so obviously there is a risk that they won\u2019t get on and initially Chip, the male, went upstream and Willow went in the opposite direction. But early indications are that the his-and-hers straw-bale lodge we\u2019ve built for them has been used.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Chip and Willow making themselves at home at Mapperton (Image: Sam Rose)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cWe are delighted that Chip and Willow are here as we haven\u2019t had any beavers for quite a while and they are an integral part of the Mapperton Wildlands project.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u201cAs well as being very grateful to the Beaver Trust for their assistance, we also want to thank Forestry England for giving Chip a home, and Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian and Flamingo Land in North Yorkshire for providing beaver-friendly accommodations during Chip and Willow\u2019s journey south.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Next year visitors will be able to see the enclosure site and perhaps spot Chip and Willow. Three beaver-cams have also been set up so people can keep track of the pair\u2019s escapades.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The Earl said that the pair are ready for Christmas. He added: \u201cWe have provided Chip and Willow with a seasonal feast of carrots, apples and tasty willow branches and a safe, warm space to live, so with any luck, perhaps there might be a bit of Christmas romance in the air.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chip and Willow the beavers have arrived at the Mapperton Estate near Beaminster and are getting to know&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":{"0":"post-330816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom","11":"tag-unitedkingdom","12":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330816","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=330816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}