Two beavers moved to the RSPB’s Gartocharn reserve as part of controversial plans to reintroduce the species to Loch Lomond have been killed by predators.
RSPB Scotland translocated a family group of seven beavers to the Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve in January, despite fierce opposition from local residents, anglers and farmers.
Loch Lomond is only the third location in Scotland where a beaver translocation has taken place since a reintroduction trial at Knapdale in Argyll in 2009.
The pair of beavers and their five young offspring (two yearlings and three kits) were moved from an area in Tayside as part of plans to speed up the return of beavers to the Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve, which is jointly managed by RSPB Scotland, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority and NatureScot.
However last week the RSPB announced that two of the young kits had been killed and partially eaten by otters.
An RSPB statement said: “We discovered the deaths when reviewing remote camera footage at the end of last week. We saw clips from 2am on Thursday (February 9) of several young beavers alive and well.
“Then a clip from just five hours later showed an otter and a dead kit.
“We managed to find the kit’s body and could identify it as the smallest kit.
“The body appeared in good condition but also looked to have been partially eaten. We sent it for post-mortem to determine the cause of death.
“The post-mortem confirmed our suspicions. It concluded that the kit was predated by an otter, being killed and then eaten.
“It also determined that the kit was in good bodily condition and feeding well, with no evidence of disease that might have contributed to its death.
“We discovered the death of the second kit from remote camera clips the following day.
“We cannot be completely certain what happened from the short videos recorded by the camera and were unable to find the body, but we suspect that the same thing happened to this kit.
“It is known that young beavers, particularly small kits, can be predated (killed to eat) by animals including otters, foxes, pine martens, birds of prey and even large pike.
“Studies also show that kit mortality can be quite high especially in their first year.
“None of this makes it any easier and we’re very sad to have lost these kits despite it being a natural process.”
Last year anglers outlined their fears that the release of beavers into Loch Lomond will damage riverbanks, harm the Atlantic salmon population and end up costing landowners – as well as the public purse.
However, RSPB Scotland, the nature conservation charity leading the effort, anticipates that the beavers which it labels ‘nature’s engineers’ will create and enhance habitats and boost biodiversity in the NNR helping to address both the climate and nature emergencies.
Earlier this month SEPA ordered the RSPB to remove brash from the Aber Burn in Gartocharn which had been introduced to make the beavers feel more at home, as it had been identified as a threat to protected Atlantic Salmon travelling along the river to spawn.
