The Ferret ‘ The Scottish Government is under growing pressure to act after confirmation that 87 beavers have been shot under licence in the eight months since they were given official protected status.  A report published on 28 May by the government’s wildlife agency, Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), details shootings by farmers and landowners in Tayside in 2019. It suggests changes including relocating beavers within Scotland and paying farmers to “host” them.

Conservationists are “deeply concerned” by the impact of the cull on a population thought to number just 450 animals, with one saying the shootings represented a “shameful policy failure”. The National Farmers Union in Scotland welcomed the report, claiming the current management system is effective.

The Ferret revealed on 17 May that farmers and landowners had legally killed “around one hundred” wild beavers in Tayside in 2019. At the time SNH did not confirm the figure.

Now SNH’s new report says that 87 beavers were shot between 1 May 2019, when they gained protected status from the Scottish Government, and 31 December 2019. At least ten of the animals were kits less than a year old.   All shootings were in the Tay river catchment where beavers first appeared in the wild in Scotland around 15 years ago after being illegally or accidentally released. Farmers complain that their dams block ditches and flood fields.  More than half of those shot – 49 – were in Strathmore on the Isla, a tributary of the Tay. The report suggests the population in this area is likely to be “suppressed”.  It adds: “The area may act to some extent as a sink, with new animals moving into the void. This could potentially impact on the population expansion rate around this area, particularly eastwards.”

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