Beaver Update — June 2026

Pete Short and Jonath­an Wil­let (8 July 2026)

Beaver Pop­u­la­tion Summary

• Year 1 releases – 18
• Year 2 releases – 15

• Year 3 releases – 7

• 2024 wild-born kits – 2 (from 2 families)

• 2025 wild-born kits – 18 (from 8 families)
• 2026 wild-born kits – 9* (from 6 families)

Total of 69 (includ­ing pos­sibly 2 beavers out­with the Nation­al Park bound­ary – Fochabers/​Spey Mouth).

*run­ning total, pop­u­la­tion mon­it­or­ing is under­way in July/​August to con­firm 2026 breeding

Activ­ity

• Rothiemurchus (Lochan Mor/​Lily Loch): Beavers still act­ive on the site. No kits seen dur­ing this month’s kit watches.
• Kin­rara 1: Beavers are still act­ive on this site. 3 kits seen on camera.
• Kin­rara 2: Beavers are still act­ive on this site. 2 kits seen on camera.
• Kin­rara 3: Lim­ited activ­ity on site. No beavers seen on site this month
• Kin­rara 4: Lim­ited activ­ity on site. No beavers seen on site this month
• Glen Tromie: Some fresh feed­ing found, lots of birch cop­picing. Fresh feed­ing activ­ity upstream from the release site on the Tromie
• Insh Marshes: Beavers still act­ive on site and have explored nearly all of the reserve. Single kit seen on cam­era from one site and two well-grown kits seen at the end of June at anoth­er site.
• Inshriach: Beavers are still act­ive on the site. Vig­or­ous cop­pice regrowth of wil­low and White pop­lar stumps. Single, well-grown kit seen.
• Loch Mor­lich 1: Beavers are still act­ive on the site. Two reports of a kit in late May from a loc­al. No kits seen dur­ing this months’ kit watches.
• Loch Mor­lich 2: Beavers not seen this month.
• Aviemore area: Cam­era to be deployed in July – area rel­at­ively inaccessible.
• Kin­gussie Graz­ings: Some fresh feed­ing activ­ity, no videos from the trail camera.

Sites out­with Kin­gussie to Aviemore

• Crom­dale beaver: No activ­ity seen on the last two vis­its, site pre­sumed abandoned.
• Gar­mouth beaver: One report of two beavers at Gar­mouth – yet to be confirmed.
• Lag­gan Bridge: Fresh felling of Row­an on site.
• Boat of Garten: No recent activ­ity. Beaver not seen on the trail cam this month.
• Grant­own between the A95 bridge and the Cairn Dis­til­lery. A single beaver was seen twice this month dur­ing watches.

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 activity.

Rais­ing Aware­ness and Understanding

• Beaver and Aspen Group meet­ing, 10 June.
• Cairngorms Beaver Group meet­ing, 23 June.
• Mon­it­or­ing and Mit­ig­a­tion Group meet­ing, 24 June.

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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.