Enfield beavers: London welcomes first bouncing baby beaver in 400 years as rewilding project pays off

A rewilding project which saw beavers reintroduced to London's waterways after a 400-year absence has paid dividends - with a brand new baby beaver caught on camera swimming with its parents

Enfield Council launched London’s first beaver reintroduction programme in 2022, bringing the aquatic rodents back to the capital as part of its rewilding and natural flood management project. Now a baby beaver - or kit - has been caught on camera splashing around in the council's specially-built enclosure near Forty Hall.

It is thought to be the first baby beaver to be born in London for hundreds of years, with beavers once hunted to extinction in England. While they have been reintroduced at a number of sites across the country, they were only formally recognised as a native species and given government protection last year.

The new arrival appears to be thriving, but Capel Manor College - which helps the council manage the beaver population - intends to capture the kit to give it a thorough on-site health check, with guidance from the Beaver Trust and an experienced exotic animal vet.

They also hope to confirm its sex, which at this stage is still a mystery.

Enfield Council’s cabinet member for environment, Councillor Rick Jewell, said: “This truly is wonderful news. The adult beavers are quite young so we weren’t sure that they would breed successfully in such a short space of time."

The council could already see the positive impact the beavers were having through their natural landscaping of the area, he continued.

“The beavers’ hard work creating a natural wetland ecosystem will contribute to excellent flood defences, protecting the local area and hundreds of homes from flooding downstream to the southeast of the borough, while encouraging local biodiversity to thrive. They really are remarkable animals."

Capel Manor College’s animal collections manager, Meg Wilson, said they were "thrilled" for the new arrival. "We have seen the developments the beavers are making and the improvements they have made to the wetland area. We are now focusing our efforts on collecting data, which we hope will further evidence the positive effects the beavers are having on the environment."

Capel Manor College’s team had noticed earlier this year that the female beaver appeared to be pregnant. The beaver couple had also been extremely active over the past few months, expanding their already-sizeable domed lodge and felling several trees - including a large willow - which will re-grow by shooting out new stems.

Dams were also visible across the site, which she said was a sign that the beavers were getting on well, and making Enfield their home.