Monthly beaver update - November 2025

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Beaver Update Novem­ber 2025 Jonath­an Wil­let (28 Novem­ber 2025)

Beaver Pop­u­la­tion Sum­mary Year 1 releases – 18. Year 2 releases – 15 2024 wild-born kits – 2 (from 2 fam­il­ies). 2025 wild-born kits – 18 (from 8 fam­il­ies) Total of 53 (includ­ing 1 beaver out­with the Park boundary)

Activ­ity • Rothiemurchus (Lochan Mor/​Lily Loch): Beavers still act­ive on the site. Felling of birch trees around the loch, the lodge is increas­ing in size. • Wild­land 1: Aspen have been felled, around 10% of the total num­ber of trees in this area (n=117) and a fur­ther 10% are being fed on. At the nearby loch, 3 mature trees have been felled and 2 are being fed on, there are approx 10 mature Aspen in this area. • Wild­land 1. The dam on the loch’s out­flow burn has remained intact and has not been added to since it was first con­struc­ted in Septem­ber 2025. Nor­mal winter water levels have been main­tained, with a fluc­tu­ation of around 30cm depend­ing on rain­fall. The loch con­tin­ues to drain. • Wild­land 2: No change on site. • Insh Marshes. Beavers still act­ive on the site and have explored nearly all of the reserve. • Wild­land 3: No change on site, no sign of a lodge or bur­row. • Wild­land 4: Second bur­row found, with food cache. • Inshriach. Beavers are still act­ive on the site. • Loch Mor­lich. Beavers are still act­ive on the site, very obvi­ous felling of wil­lows on the yel­low trail, beside Abhainn Ruighe Eun­achan (inflow to Loch Mor­lich). • Aviemore. No fresh feed­ing signs seen. • Kin­gussie Graz­ings. A beaver was seen on cam­era on a few occa­sions earli­er in the month.

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Sites out­with Kin­gussie to Aviemore • Crom­dale beaver. It has have moved back onto this site after the water levels have increased. It is now one and a half years old, so it isn’t a kit any longer. • Gar­mouth beaver. No new reports. • Lag­gan Bridge. Fresh feed­ing signs recor­ded on each weekly vis­it this month.

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. • 5/11/25. At the Lichen and Aspen Group meet­ing, it was agreed that at Wild­land 1, 13 Aspen trees were to be marked for pro­tec­tion with weldmesh. So far 12 have been ​“wrapped”, 5 more mature trees have been wrapped beside the loch. • Two, mature Aspen trees are to be wrapped at Rothiemurchus, the beavers have felled two, 50cm dia­met­er Aspen close to the river and sev­er­al smal­ler dia­met­er ones. • 5/11/25. Site vis­it to a croft near Insh.

Rais­ing Aware­ness and Under­stand­ing • 25/11/25. 15 stu­dents, 1 teach­er from Spey­side High School High School. Walk along the Beaver Trail, talk about beaver eco­logy and impacts. • 26/11/25. 12 stu­dents from the SRUC Wild­life and Con­ser­va­tion Man­age­ment course. 4^th Year Students.

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.