9 hours ago
Tom Edwards,Environment correspondent, London, @BBCTomEdwards
The UK’s first urban beavers were introduced into a west London nature reserve back in October. The family of five are part of a project that aims to get the public to engage with nature, to study biodiversity improvements and to monitor flood mitigation effects. Seven months on, how is it faring?
It is perfect weather for beavers. The rain is incessant as we trudge past the trees and through the long grass and into their habitat. But the rain cannot stop the wonder and enthusiasm for what is happening here.
This is Paradise Fields in Greenford in Ealing. It is a nature reserve next to a retail estate but it’s where seven months ago beavers were introduced. This is now very much their home and they are transforming the habitat.
They are so happy that the volunteers here think the beavers may be breeding, and offspring – or kits as they are known – might be on the way.
We are with Dr Sean McCormack who has been one of the driving forces behind the scheme.
He takes us to one of the beavers’ five dams here, where they have cut back trees and twigs and dredged the mud to create large pools.
“This is the first dam they created in the system, the first one of five,” Dr McCormack says. “The reason they have created it here is to create some deep water before they have to cross the Capital Ring footpath which runs through the site.
“To a beaver
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