Beaver wild releases in England follow Steve’s Great Escapes

Steve the Beaver became so adept at absconding from his “secure” enclosure that he was named after a star of the classic film The Great Escape. While sightings of him on his apparent hunt for a Mrs Steve captured many hearts, the regularity of beaver breakouts has led people to question why it took so long to allow wild releases of these once-extinct animals in England.

Chef Rachael Cowens was used to seeing wildlife around Otterburn Mill, so when she spotted a furry mammal actually inside the building she thought at first it was – as she put it – “just an otter”.

The Northumberland textile mill had been converted into a shop and cafe where visitors could see the old waterwheel behind a glass panel.

“I looked through and there he was, quite close, just sitting on a grill above the water.”

Realising it was a beaver, she managed to get a quick photograph before he flicked his tail into the air and ducked into the stream which runs under the building.

“Oh it caused great excitement,” said Euan Pringle, the owner of Otterburn Mill.

“You just think of beavers gnawing away at logs in cartoons so to know you’ve got one on your premises, well that’s quite something.”

At first it was assumed the beaver had travelled down from Scotland where there is a rapidly increasing estimated population of more than 1,500.

However it turns out he was from nearer home, one of a family of four released in 2023 into an enclosure at the National Trust’s Wallington Estate 12 miles away.

Lead ranger Helen McDonald said the beavers’ dam building work has “brought the area to life with a big increase in things like mayflies, dragonflies, bats and frogspawn”.

But one of the inmates, like many young males, was anxious to broaden his horizons.

Nicknamed Steve by staff, after the actor McQueen in the film The Great Escape, he seemingly yearned for a Mrs Steve.

His escapades over the course of a year saw him twice heading to a farm which had a “lovely fishing lake”, with a third trip seeing him eventually recaptured at Otterburn.

Where he had been prior to capture was a mystery.

A beaver had been spotted on the River Derwent in County Durham and there was some speculation it might have been the Wallington escapee.

“It would have been a trip of a 100km or more,” Ms McDonald said.

“We put up cameras and did quite a lot of surveying but we’ll never know for sure if it was him.”

It was decided Steve would be happier elsewhere and was released, along with a compatible female, into an enclosure in Wales to “start a family”.

“He was driven to find a mate and clearly he wasn’t going to find one in Northumberland,” the ranger added with a sad smile.

A mile upstream from Otterburn, farmer Robert Airey was less impressed.

Dozens of young trees on his land had been felled with tell-tale large gnaw marks left behind.

He was pretty sure it was the work of a beaver but “just didn’t know where it had come from”.

The trees had been planted by volunteers working for the Tyne Rivers Trust to stabilise the bank of the River Rede.

Mr Airey is not out of pocket, but he admits feeling “disappointed” for the volunteers.

“They did all that work to create a habitat for wildlife and then another bit of wildlife comes along and damages it.”

He is worried about species like beavers and lynx being released “without properly thinking through what happens to farming”.

Those reservations are shared by the National Union of Farmers, particularly given the likelihood of more wild releases in the future.

Deputy President David Exwood accepted the animals can provide “certain benefits”, but added: “Beavers can flood and waterlog fields, feed on agricultural crops like maize, as well as damage and fell trees such as cricket bat willow.”

Wallington’s beaver enclosure is fenced, but three very powerful storms caused “major flooding” which damaged one section and allowed Steve a route to freedom.

“It’s almost as though he was there waiting for it to happen,” said Helen McDonald.

But Steve is far from an isolated case.

A document published by Natural England in 2021 revealed: “Beavers have escaped from several of the fenced enclosures (repeatedly in some cases); escapees were not always recovered nor escapes always reported to the authorities.”

The same document identified there had been at least one beaver escape from 44% of the 31 enclosures then in place.

Natural England believes the current figure is still within the 40% to 50% range, but could not provide an exact number.

It also pointed out that, since 2021, escaped beavers have been recaptured in the vast majority of cases.

Among those to have remained on the run are Woody and Twiggy who were released into the Mapperton Estate in West Dorset in 2022 but disappeared for good in January 2024, also through damaged fencing.

Estate owner Luke Montagu, Viscount Hinchingbrooke, said back to back storms made it “impossible to find them”, but he hoped they are “out there living their best lives and enjoying the Dorset countryside”.

Preparations are under way to put new beavers into their enclosure, but the Viscount said that, “with the correct consultations in place”, he would have welcomed an unfettered release into the estate.

Until this year it was not legal to release a beaver into the wild in England, but from the early 2000s they had been housed in enclosures by private estates, charities and other organisations.

These were not classed as reintroductions, so there was no legal framework and escaped beavers created wild populations.

In February the government announced a change in policy in favour of wild releases, with licences for enclosures granted only in “very limited circumstances”.

In the area covered by Cumbria Connect, a nature recovery programme straddling the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales national parks, an enclosure on the Lowther Estate also saw a beaver bolt.

Martin Varley, from the Cumbrian organisation, said: “At Lowther, as good a job as the beavers are doing in their enclosure, they’d be doing a much better job if we had them up and down the valley and through the Eden catchment.”

So were enclosures ever a good idea?

John Holmes from Natural England said: “Beavers have been missing from our landscapes for over 400 years and their careful reintroduction represents a significant landmark for nature recovery in England.

“It is important that species reintroductions are conducted carefully to secure long-term environmental benefits while avoiding potential risks.

“Enclosed releases remain invaluable for public education and the knowledge gained has directly informed our move to wild releases.”

Many beaver groups have made no secret of their frustration at not seeing the animals live “free uncontained lives”, as one put it, and the Wildlife Trusts have campaigned for many years for a change in policy.

Duncan Hutt from Northumberland Wildlife Trust said: “We just need to let them get on with doing what they do best, creating wetlands and improving biodiversity.”

Roisin Campbell-Palmer, from the charity Beaver Trust, said enclosures “can be wonderful demonstration models” generating “important science”, but the charity’s preference would always be that beavers are released “in the wild on a larger scale”.

In any case, as a result of historical illegal releases beavers are already paddling their way into new areas.

“In time in Britain there will be tens of thousands of beavers,” she said.

“It’s happening already, but more wild releases will speed up the process.”

If only Steve could have waited.