KNOWLEDGE BASE

Through their engineering works, beavers change forest ecosystems, creating diverse habitats and producing deadwood. This study compared the diversity of land-based fungi called calicioids in forests with and without beavers. Diversity was significantly higher in beaver sites, likely due to the abundant deadwood they provide. This showed that beavers' benefit land-based organisms as well as aquatic ones.

Researchers studied invasive North American beavers in two habitat types in Patagonia: forests and the steppe. It found that colony size and offspring numbers were higher in the steppe, even though previously most people thought that that habitat was not very good for beavers. Beaver survival rates were high in all habitats. Overall, the adaptability of the beaver to different habitats is seen as crucial to its survival in Patagonia, and the authors suggest more research is needed on beavers in the steppe.

This study looked at the structure and nervous system of the Eurasian beaver's mammary gland. The research found similarities between juvenile and mature (non-pregnant) beavers, as well as similarities to other mammals' mammary glands. Please note, this resource is not open-access.

Tagging animals can be great for monitoring beavers in their habitats but this study wanted to see if any stress in the tagging process affected beavers' behaviour. It found that overall activity levels decreased very slightly, but tagged beavers were moving similar distances and using as much of their territory as beforehand, suggesting minimal impact on beavers' behaviour.

The Scottish Beaver Trial involved releasing 16 wild Norwegian beavers to Scotland. The Trial used a "One Health" approach to monitor ecology, public health, and veterinary health, with information being shared between these different specialists and stakeholder groups. This text reported on how that approach worked in practice, and how the Trial panned out from a health perspective. This included the number of beaver deaths during quarantine and the pathogens detected in the released beavers.