Beaver Update

August 2026

Pete Short and Jonath­an Wil­let (09 Septem­ber 2026)

Beaver Pop­u­la­tion Summary

Year 1 releases – 18 Year 2 releases – 15 Year 3 releases – 7 Total = 40

2024 wild-born kits – 2 (from 2 fam­il­ies) 2025 wild-born kits – 18 (from 8 fam­il­ies) 2026 wild-born kits – 12 (from 7 fam­il­ies) Total = 32

Total of 72 (includ­ing, pos­sibly, 2 beavers out­with the Nation­al Park bound­ary – Fochabers/​Spey Mouth).

Activ­ity

• Rothiemurchus (Lochan Mor/​Lily Loch): Beavers still act­ive on the site. No kits seen dur­ing the kit watch peri­od. Annu­al land­scape assess­ment com­pleted (year 3). Scattered feed­ing signs upstream of Aviemore along the Spey.
• Kin­rara 1: Beavers are still act­ive on this site. The exist­ing beaver dam has been added to, rais­ing Loch Alvie’s level, the site is being closely mon­itored and the landown­ers kept informed.
• Kin­rara 2: Beavers are still act­ive on this site.
• Kin­rara 3: No beavers seen on site this month.
• Kin­rara 4: Lim­ited activ­ity on site. A low (4m by 30cm) dam has been built on the out­flow of the Bogach and beaver graz­ing was seen in the wet mead­ow by the outflow.
• Glen Tromie: Fresh feed­ing activ­ity upstream from the release site on the Tromie, almost all Row­an trees.
• Insh Marshes: Beavers still act­ive on site and have explored nearly all of the reserve.
• Inshriach: Beavers are still act­ive on the site. Two, well-grown kits seen in August, along with two adults and two yearlings.
• Loch Mor­lich 1: Beavers are still act­ive on the site. One kit con­firmed. All the beavers (two adults, two yearlings and the kit) show­ing reg­u­larly in August, mul­tiple reports.
• Loch Mor­lich 2: Beavers not seen this month.
• Aviemore area: No repor­ted activ­ity this month. This area will be sur­veyed on land and by canoe in September.
• Kin­gussie Graz­ings: Very little fresh feed­ing activ­ity, but runs are being used reg­u­larly and fresh scent mounds located.

Sites out­with Kin­gussie to Aviemore

• Gar­mouth beaver: One report of two beavers in Fochabers/​Spey Mouth area – still to be confirmed.
• Single beaver seen in the Spey at Crag­gan­more at the end of August.
• Lag­gan Bridge: Lim­ited feed­ing signs seen along the Spey.
• Boat of Garten: No activ­ity seen this month, but three scent mounds were found close to the burrow.
• Grant­own between the A95 bridge and the Cairn Dis­til­lery: Fresh activ­ity found.
• River Nethy (below the Telford bridge): Single beaver seen on cam­era. Scent mound, graz­ing and brows­ing signs found. Activ­ity in the Spey, close to Broom­hill bridge, seen by fish­er­men. Scent mound and feed­ing signs found there too.

Mon­it­or­ing and Mit­ig­a­tion Plan Actions

• Monthly patrols of release sites undertaken.
• His­tor­ic beaver dam remov­al site. No activity.
• One com­plete dam built on the inflow river to Loch Mor­lich (10m long and 45cm high) and two oth­er attempts at dam­ming in the area – ongo­ing bi-weekly mon­it­or­ing tak­ing place in com­mu­nic­a­tion with part­ner organ­isa­tions and the landowner.
• Weekly site vis­its to the Kin­rara dam, mon­it­or­ing the water levels on Loch Alvie.

Rais­ing Aware­ness and Understanding

• Day out with loc­al film­makers to pro­duce a series of edu­ca­tion­al short films about beavers

N.B. If beavers are found in an area where the landown­er was not pre­vi­ously aware of their pres­ence, the Park Author­ity will con­tact that landown­er. The Park Author­ity does not routinely con­tact landown­ers with gen­er­al updates; this monthly update does that. There are What­s­App Groups for landown­ers around releases sites and also in any high impact areas, which have beavers present e.g. Laggan.