Conservationists at Cornwall Wildlife Trust celebrated an exciting milestone when their suspicions were confirmed and they detected beaver kits at their rewilding site Helman Tor.
The team first had an inkling that baby beavers were in the area when they heard strange noises on camera trap footage. It sounded exactly like a human baby crying.
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"At first we weren’t certain,” says Laura Snell, conservation officer at Cornwall Wildlife Trust. "But recent footage clearly shows a small kit appearing in the corner of the frame.
"It’s a huge moment – a sign that the habitat the beavers have created is healthy and thriving enough to support the next generation.”
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It’s not the first time that camera traps have caught an important moment in a beaver’s life – previous footage from a night cam captured one beaver farting, probably as it was scent marking the area.
The Trust is hopeful that this is just the start for its Wild Beaver Project, according to Cheryl Marriott, director of nature and people at Cornwall Wildlife Trust, who says: “To ensure a healthy, genetically diverse population in Cornwall, we need more beavers across more sites.”
Image and video credit: Cornwall Wildlife Trust
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