LONDON (Reuters) – At least two baby beavers have been born in an urban area of London in a moment hailed by conservationists as proof humans and the furry creatures can live side by side in the capital.
In October 2023, four centuries after the animals were hunted to extinction in London, the Ealing Beaver Project released a family of five beavers at Paradise Fields, a woodland, wetland and meadow conservation site in west London.
The beavers were relocated from wild populations in Scotland by the project and within eight months had settled in, building lodges, dams and new waterways.
Now they have produced at least two babies, known as ‘kits’.
“I had every confidence our beaver family would settle in at Paradise Fields, but to discover they’ve had new baby kits this spring is really the icing on the beaver cake,” Sean McCormack, from the Ealing Beaver Project, said in a statement.
The project said the baby beavers were the first to be born in urban London in more than 400 years. Another baby beaver was born in the suburban London borough of Enfield last year thanks to a different project launched in 2022.
McCormack said humans once lived alongside beavers and that welcoming them back to towns and cities was “right thing to do”.
The births showed “humans and wildlife can thrive side by side in urban environments”, the project said, adding it could be used as blueprint for further beaver reintroductions in London and across Britain.
(Reporting by Catarina Demony and Hannah Ellison; Editing by William James)
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