KNOWLEDGE BASE

Whilst beavers had become well established in the Czech Republic, their parasites - potential "biological hitchhikers" - were less closely monitored. Therefore, this paper examined Czech beavers and identified three parasites, including two which were being reported for the first time. It was suggested that analysing parasite genetics could also provide insights into the ancestry and migration history of beaver populations. At the beginning, the text also briefly summarised beavers' recovery story in the Czech Republic over the last 50 years.

After the collapse of Pohansko in the 10th century AD (a town which would be in Czech Republic today), there appeared to be evidence of a notable rise in hunting, particularly of the Eurasian beaver. In this study, researchers from different disciplines worked together to try to understand what environmental, economic, and political changes influenced this trend. One finding was that the depopulation of Pohansko likely lead to the reforestation of the surrounding area, creating more beaver habitat. Other angles, including the economics of medieval beaver trade, are discussed in the text.

Bio-logging is a term for attaching tags to animals to gather information on their behaviour, movement, and so on. Bio-logging is used to study Eurasian beavers but the impacts of tagging on the beavers' health was not well understood. In this experiment, researchers compared body weight changes in tagged and untagged beavers. On average, tagged beavers lost weight whilst untagged ones gained weight. Although the weight change was small, these results highlighted the potential negative effects of tagging on animal welfare. The authors discussed the implications of this finding for beaver research.

Scientists isolated Staphylococcus bacteria from deceased wild beavers found in Germany and Austria. They found that some of the strains, isolated from beavers which suffered from issues like abscesses and necrotising pneumonia, carried genes which looked similar to those which cause severe human infections. The text described further research which was needed to explore these strains' clinical impact and potential human transmission.

Here, collecting hair was shown to be a simple, effective, and cost-efficient method for monitoring beavers. Researchers in Poland found that the method could be used to estimate beaver populations without capturing them, thus providing benefits for beaver welfare too. Many practical insights on their experience testing the method were documented, with one interesting insight being that no hair samples were collected from sites covered with nettles. This indicated that beavers may, like humans, not like nettles very much!