Find out what Twiggy, Woody, Timmy and Suzie have been up to at their home at Martin Mere.
- 28 Jul
Martin Mere says goodbye to juvenile beavers
Staff at WWT Martin Mere are sharing an important milestone in their beaver families lives as they prepare to say goodbye to their juveniles.
On July 11 2007, a family of four European beavers was released at WWT Martin Mere: two adults and two juveniles. The plan was to let the family live together in their new home at Martin Mere until the juveniles reached maturity or the adults produced young, so it is time to say good bye to our juvenile beavers and make way for some new youngsters.
Four traps have been in the beaver enclosure and the wardens were on ‘night watch’ to monitor them last week. Their favourite foods: sweetcorn and sweet potatoes were placed in the traps as well as using an attractant scent. When a beaver is in the trap a scanner is used to read the microchip in their necks to determine whether it is an adult or a juvenile.
Post a comment - 12 Jun
A constant battle
The wardens have done quite a bit of work in the last couple of days. For the last few months, the pump which supplies the beaver pen with water has been broken and so the wardens had to pump water into the pen on a daily basis with a large petrol pump to keep the water fresh. An adequate new electric submersible pump has now been fitted, which should prove to be far more reliable than the one in place previously.
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During the time the pump was out of action, the beaver deceiver round the outflow pipe was notunblocked, in the mistaken belief that as there was no running water at night when the beavers were out, they would not bother blocking it up. This proved to be a wrong assumption! The beavers only put small amounts of debris and mud on top of the deceiver so that it looked like they hadnt done much, but under the water they had shoved lots of sand and mud and so they eventually built a dam all the way round the deceiver. Now that the new pump is working, the wardens have had to clear the deceiver, shovelling an estimated one ton of soil in the process! The beavers dont like to be beaten though and the very next night they piled several large branches on top of the deceiver and then started to shove mud round them to hold them in place. The beaver deceiver is a constant battle between warden and beaver and nobody can be too sure who will win! - 1 Jun
What do they do with the felled trees?
Beavers have an instinct to chew wood which helps keep their continuously growing teeth from getting too long. Trees cut down by beavers are used for food and building. The bark and fresh branches of trees will be eaten or stored in a larder, like the one on the back pond. The large trunk will sometimes be cut up and used for building purposes. While some trees have been cut down and the trunk left, pretty much all the trees felled did have their branches stripped.
Beavers also prefer some trees to others. They like willow, poplar and aspen trees and unsurprisingly love fruit trees. Other trees may be cut down because of their location. It is much easier to clear chopped down trees which have fallen on the edge or in the pond than to try and drag large branches over land. Beavers dont like walking over land for any large distance, feeling exposed to predators. This is the main reason why they build dams. By flooding an area they increase the number of trees available to them on the edge of their stretch of water. When this has been maximised, they will frequently build canals, like the one connecting the two ponds in their enclosure, going out into the surrounding area and giving them more trees to go at.
Post a comment - 28 May
Another lodge?
The beavers have made a number of burrows since their release last year. Initally they created burrows on the front pond, then on the back pond to the left, and ultimately they burrowed into the bank on the right of the back pond and created a lodge structure on top of it to reinforce and protect the structure.
Now it appears they are starting to build a lodge structure on top of the already existing burrows on the left of the back pond. There could be a number of possibilities as to why they have started to do this: they may simply like to move burrows every now and again, or maybe the younger beavers are wanting their own space.
Post a comment - 8 May
Tunnelling away
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The beavers have been very busy over the last week. A hole approximately 30cm in width has appeared at the back of the enclosure under a pile of branches. This hole looks to tunnel down towards the lodge on the back pond and may be a potential route that the beavers are using to move in and out of the lodge. - 22 Apr
Lodge building
Over the last month the beavers have started to do a considerable amount of work around the lodge on the back pond to the right. They have used mud and branches to create a visible lodge structure which makes us confident that they have now 'moved out' of the previous lodge to the left of the back pond and that they are still living as a family unit.
Post a comment - 15 Apr
The beaver deceiver
We think that the beavers may be building a mini dam around the 'beaver deceiver' (i.e. the outflow pipe). We watched them nightly on Autumwatch blocking up this pipe with mud and twigs but it is now looking that they are trying to go a stage further by actually damming it!
Post a comment - 8 Apr
Catching up with the beavers
We were worried that the adult beavers would start bullying the two youngsters over the winter as this is the time when they breed. In case this happened we put a trap into their enclosure on the right hand side so that the beavers would get used to it in case we needed to catch the youngsters and move them to safety or if one of the beavers need veterinary care. We put food down either end of the trap and even though it took them a few days before they started to take the food, it appears that they are now used to walking around the trap. However there have been no problems to date and so the trap has not been used.
Post a comment - 1 Apr
Trees, trees and more trees
Due to the amount of tree fellign the beavers have done over the last year, we have had to plant 50 Willows and Poplars (two of the beaver's favourite trees). These have also been protected with chicken wire until they are big enough for the beavers to chop them down.
Post a comment - 25 Mar
Gnawing activity
The beavers have begun to gnaw down a tree coated with 'beaver proof' paint from Germany. You can tell which trees have been coated in this paint because it leaves a white residue on the bark and supposedly has an unpleasant taste which the beavers don't like! Wardens had to quickly protect it (and all the others) with chicken wire because the trees were originally treated with this paint as they may be a health and safety hazard if felled due to the size of the trees. The chicken wire appears to have stopped the beavers gnawing on these trees for the time being.
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Carolyn: Its good to see the beavers still very active -but they seem to fell almost every tree in sight, disregarding the anti-beaver paint. Do they actually use the wood they fell? Or is it some instinct they have to chew down any tree whether it is useful to them or not?