Beaver 'Blind Date' Was a Reintroduction Milestone

In a rain-soaked Cornish field, England quietly crossed a wildlife milestone with the first legal release of truly wild beavers. Conservationists on Monday released four of the animals into a river system at Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Helman Tor reserve, the first time the rodents have been legally turned loose on the English mainland rather than kept behind containment barriers, the Guardian reports. A license was also issued for a release in Somerset, reports the BBC. Beavers were wiped out in Britain about 400 years ago by hunting for fur, meat, and an oil they produce.

Two of those released in Cornwall came from separate enclosures in Cheshire and Dorset and met for the first time as their crates were opened—a setup one project leader jokingly called a "beaver blind date." The Guardian reports that it appeared to go well: "After greeting each other with a sniff, the pair swam off into the horizon." A national studbook is being used to safeguard genetic diversity, and experts hope the pair will found a self-sustaining colony. Beavers are considered a "keystone" species: their dams slow floodwater, store water during drought, filter pollution, and create wetlands that support more birds, bats, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates.

Getting to this moment has been slow and expensive. The Cornwall Wildlife Trust says it took roughly a year and about $200,000 in administrative and survey costs to secure a license from government agency Natural England to release just four beavers across about 750 acres. The delays have helped fuel "beaver bombing," the covert release of animals without permission; an unknown party secretly introduced a pair to Helman Tor in 2024, a move conservationists publicly reject but admit has transformed the landscape faster and cheaper than human-made ponds.

• The "beaver bombing" has led to the establishment of several wild beaver populations in England. In December, a wild beaver was spotted in Norfolk for the first time in around 500 years. "No one knows where it's come from, but it's found what I consider a perfect beaver habitat," nature reserve manager Richard Spowage told the Guardian.

Natural England says it is now working on more than 30 licensed projects and promises a more streamlined, possibly cheaper system, with large-scale releases planned on major river catchments including the Humber, Severn, and Thames. Wildlife groups aim to put about 100 beavers into their reserves this year, betting that the animals' engineering skills will prove their worth faster than any policy paper.