Monthly beaver update - August 2025

Beaver Update August 2025 Jonath­an Wil­let (2 Septem­ber 2025)

Beaver Pop­u­la­tion Sum­mary Year 1 releases – 18 Year 2 releases – 15 2024 wild-born kits – 2 (from two fam­il­ies) 2025 wild-born kits – 17 (from eight fam­il­ies) Total = 52 (includ­ing 1 beaver out­with the Park boundary)

Note The 2025 beaver sur­vey of the Spey is being draf­ted and will be cir­cu­lated the week begin­ning the 8 Septem­ber. All the detail in this report pred­ates that survey.

Activ­ity • Rothiemurchus (Lily Loch): Beavers still act­ive on the site. • Wild­land 1: A large Aspen was felled and is being bark-stripped and de-limbed. • Wild­land 2: Both kits seen on cam­era. • Insh Marshes. The three fam­il­ies have five kits. • Wild­land 3: No change on site, still no sign of a lodge or bur­row. • Wild­land 4: Usu­ally just one beaver seen at any one time. • Inshriach: Two kits seen on the 21 August. • Loch Mor­lich: Two kits seen on the ⁹⁄₁₀ August. • Aviemore: No activ­ity recor­ded. • Kin­gussie Graz­ings: No sight­ings of a beaver on camera.

Sites out­with Kin­gussie to Aviemore • Crom­dale beaver kit. Still present on site.

• Fochabers beaver. Now the Gar­mouth beaver, it Is being sighted and pho­to­graphed reg­u­larly from the Gar­mouth Viaduct.

Mon­it­or­ing and Mit­ig­a­tion Plan Actions • Monthly patrols of release sites under­taken. • Weekly patrols of high impact areas have been under­taken. • Beaver dam remov­al site. No recent activ­ity. • The canoe sur­vey of the Spey star­ted on the 26 August and was com­pleted on the 31 August • The kit watches have fin­ished for the sea­son • A licence to fill in the bur­row at Old Milton was approved on the 13 August, the final piece of paper­work for the bur­row filling was sent to Mr Tul­loch on the 15 August. Work could leg­ally com­mence on the 17 August after the kit depend­ency peri­od had ended.

Rais­ing Aware­ness and Under­stand­ing • A 30-second film about the Cairngorms Beaver Pro­ject is now in UK cinemas, with Pearl and Dean advert­ising, for 3 months. The film can be seen here

Meet­ings • Two-day Scot­tish Beaver Advis­ory Group Meet­ing on the 20 and 21 August. One day of site vis­its to farms on the River Isla.