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Monthly beaver update - October 2026

Cairngorms Nation­al Park Author­ity Ugh­dar­ras Pàirc Nàiseanta a’ Mhon­aidh Ruaidh

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Beaver Update Octo­ber 2026 Pete Short and Jonath­an Wil­let (6 Novem­ber 2026)

Beaver Pop­u­la­tion Sum­mary – 13 releases to date Year 1 releases – 18 Year 2 releases – 15 Year 3 releases – 7 Year 4 releases — 4 (a fam­ily with two female kits were released at Milton Loch, Boat of Garten)

2024 wild-born kits – 2 (from 2 fam­il­ies) 2025 wild-born kits – 18 (from 8 fam­il­ies) 2026 wild-born kits – 15 (from 8 families)

2026 mor­tal­ity – 1 kit found dead in Loch Alvie on the 25 Octo­ber. There was no vis­ible trauma. It was frozen and is now with the Beaver Trust for a post-mortem exam­in­a­tion. Occa­sion­al mor­tal­it­ies are expec­ted in a wild pop­u­la­tion – this is the first known mor­tal­ity in the Cairngorms.

Total of 78 (at least one beaver out­with the Nation­al Park bound­ary – Fochabers/​Spey Mouth).

8 breed­ing ter­rit­or­ies this year. 16 con­firmed or sus­pec­ted ter­rit­or­ies in total.

Release Site Activity

  • Rothiemurchus (Lochan Mor/​Lily Loch): Beavers still act­ive on the site.
  • Kin­rara 1: Beavers are still act­ive on this site.
  • Kin­rara 2: Beavers are still act­ive on this site.
  • Kin­rara 3: No beavers seen on site this month
  • Kin­rara 4: Lim­ited activ­ity on site.

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  • Glen Tromie: Fresh feed­ing signs seen, beavers caught on cam­era, the lodge has been added to, and a food cache is being built.
  • Insh Marshes: Beavers still act­ive on site and have explored nearly all of the reserve.
  • Inshriach: Beavers are still act­ive on the site.
  • Loch Mor­lich 1: Beavers are still act­ive on the site.
  • Loch Mor­lich 2: Beavers not seen this month. It is thought they have left the site
  • Aviemore area: very lim­ited feed­ing signs com­pared to last winter.
  • Kin­gussie Graz­ings: Some fresh feed­ing activ­ity, a col­lapsed bur­rows was found on RSPB ground upstream of the con­flu­ence of the Gyn­ack and the Spey. A site vis­it on the week begin­ning 9 Novem­ber has been arranged.

Sites out­with Kin­gussie to Aviemore

  • Crom­dale beaver: Site pre­sumed abandoned.
  • Gar­mouth beaver: Pre­sumed still in the area
  • Lag­gan Bridge: Fresh feed­ing signs, a 15m pop­lar was gnawed and then blew over in the storms. Weekly vis­its to keep an eye on the two very large pop­lars there.
  • Boat of Garten: Recent feed­ing on wood­land down­stream of burrow.
  • Grant­own between the A95 bridge and the Cairn Dis­til­lery. Site not vis­ited this month.
  • River Nethy beaver – single beaver seen on camera.

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 beaver activ­ity this month.
  • A meet­ing to dis­cuss woody mater­i­al in the lower Nethy, as well as fish pas­sage, flood­ing and erosion has been arranged for Janu­ary 2027.
  • No more dam­ming attempts at Loch Mor­lich inflow & out­flow have been found.
  • The dam on the Allt Dib­heach (Loch Alvie out­flow) was notched by the Park Author­ity beaver team under license on the 19 Novem­ber. The water levels of Loch Alvie have dropped by over 90cm from the peak flood height of 26 Octo­ber. A flow device is being installed this month to ensure a lower water level is main­tained should the beaver repair the dam.

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  • Trees by the B9152 bridge (Loch Alvie out­flow): Beavers have been feed­ing on trees by the Allt Dib­heach and the shores of Loch Alvie in this area. Wild­land Ltd have felled the Aspens closest to the road that the beavers were feed­ing on or were likely to feed on. Some of the mixed broadleaves on Oxy­gen Conservation’s land have been felled with one fall­ing on the road on the night of the 1 Novem­ber, we were con­tac­ted by the police on the 2 Novem­ber and news of the fallen tree made ​“The Strathy” and was repor­ted on Face­book. The tree was cleared off the road by per­sons unknown. We are in dis­cus­sion with the landown­er about the best way for­ward to mit­ig­ate the risks of these trees fall­ing on the road in the future.

Rais­ing Aware­ness and Understanding

  • Talk to attendees at the Beaver release at Milton Loch, Boat of Garten. 30.
  • Beaver stand at Hill to Grill, Nethy Bridge. 109
  • The beaver team vis­ited staff at the Argyll Beaver Centre in Knap­dale (the Scot­tish Beaver Tri­al site) to listen to their exper­i­ences of beavers and to see what 17 years of beaver activ­ity looks like in an Atlantic Rainforest.

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.