You don’t have to look far to find evidence of Perth’s urban beavers.
The pudgey, elusive rodents have been residents at Moncreiffe Island since at least 2017.
And they are making their presence known.
Beavers are about to become a much more common part of our landscape.
Scotland’s beaver population is currently thought to be sitting at around the 1,000 mark.
And with the Scottish Government endorsing policy to relocate, rather than shoot, beavers that come into conflict with landowners, this number is set to rise dramatically.
But what about those living alongside the UK’s first urban beavers in Perth? We took a trip to Moncreiffe Island to find out.
The greenkeeper
James Sievwright is head greenkeeper at King James VI Golf Club on the island.
“On the course we’ve probably lost about 20 trees I would say, to the beaver.
“They do cause us a fair bit of work.
“That’s on the course. There will be more than that around the island.
“We’ve only really noticed it in the last five years. Before that we never had any trouble at all.”
James has a live and let live attitude to the island’s recent incomers.
“There’s nothing you can do about it, to be honest.”
But when asked if the presence of beavers in Perth has any positives, he adds: “Not for us at the golf course.
“It costs us time tidying up the trees, because we’ve got to cut them down and take them all away.
“Or if they’re unsafe. If they get half way through a tree, it’s obviously not safe then, so we need to cut it down.
“If you’re losing 20 trees over five years, if you keep that going over how many years, it’s a lot of trees you’re losing.”
But how did beavers get to the heart of the Fair City?
Scotland’s beaver population was hunted to extinction in the 16th Century.
And how the creatures reappeared in the Tay is a matter of debate.
The ancestors of the beavers in urban Perth are believed to have once been kept privately.
Someone either illegally deliberately released them or the animals escaped by accident around 2006.
This is a separate population to the beavers legally reintroduced at Knapdale on the west coast of Scotland as part of the Scottish Beaver Trial, which started in 2009.
Donald Fraser is head of wildlife management at government agency NatureScot.
He says it is likely a family of around four beavers have made Moncreiffe Island their home.
And he says the trees felled by beavers would “quickly regenerate”.
“We very much want to see an increase in woodland cover in Scotland.
“Woodlands are dynamic habitats which naturally see loss and replacement of individual trees, even in the absence of beavers.
“Beaver felling also opens up patches in the canopy which creates a mosaic of different habitats within riparian woodlands, where many species can then thrive.
“As long as the woodland is protected from overgrazing from livestock or deer, trees that beavers fell will quickly regenerate from the stump or be replaced by new seedlings and the cycle continues.
“There is plenty of opportunity and evidence of young growth along the Tay.”
Meanwhile, down at the allotments
Moncreiffe Island is also home to allotments run by Perth Working Men’s Garden Association.
For some, the beavers provide an exciting opportunity for wildlife spotting.
According to locals, nature enthusiasts keen to catch a glimpse of the industrious four-legged forestry workers are best to keep a look out at nightfall.
Despite tending an allotment for the past nine years, William Fernie has yet to spot the elusive creatures.
But he says a fellow allotment holder had seen three beavers on the island one evening.
“They don’t bother me,” adds William, 69.
“As long as they stay on this side and I’m on that side.
“I wouldn’t chase them away.”
However, Heather MacDonald, who chairs Perth Working Men’s Garden Association, has “mixed feelings”.
“It’s live and let live at the moment, until the trees start falling in the way.
“It’s mixed feelings, because there are no predators for them.
“They’re just going to breed and keep destroying trees and all that’s being said to us all the time is preserve trees, plant trees.”
Adult beavers can weigh up to nearly 70lbs and are not threatened by any natural predators.
Their young, called kits, are vulnerable to predators including otters, foxes and large birds of prey.
“My only concern is how they control them,” says Heather.
“It’s all very well, but it’s the way they live. They dam rivers, they form wetlands. It helps the birds – it helps a lot of things – but I don’t see it helping people.
“It’s nice that they’re back, but they have to be controlled.”
No need to move Moncreiffe beavers says agency
Elsewhere in Tayside, the first translocation licences have been granted to move beavers where they are damaging farmland.
In a first since the releases at Knapdale, two families of beavers have now been relocated to the Argaty Red Kites centre near Doune.
The move meant the animals lives’ were spared. They would otherwise have been subject to lethal control licences.
But Donald from NatureScot says there are no plans to move the Moncreiffe Island beavers on.
He says there is no evidence that beavers are “causing significant detrimental impacts to land or infrastructure in the City of Perth which can’t be managed by mitigation measures”.
Instead, NatureScot staff plan to look at options for protecting trees on the island.
“We have recently been in contact with the Perth and Kinross Council greenspace ranger responsible for Moncreiffe Island, who we understand will be liaising with volunteers to work on tree protection measures.
“We would be very happy to speak to the allotment community to understand the issues they’ve identified and offer mitigation solutions where necessary, as well as discussing ways to protect trees with the golf club.”
