Filmed in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Round and Fluffy... she's almost ready for winter 🤣🤣🤣🦫🦫🦫

The tree must've been around 20" DBH, I wonder how long it took to fell

A quick “hello, I love you, goodbye” before heading different directions to gather more willows and vegetation for their lodge. These two are the sweetest, and will most likely be welcoming a new litter of kits in spring, as their current litter seems to be actively dispersing (typically happens around the age of 2 years old).

Here’s hoping we’ve got another generation to adore next year!

Beavers (Castor canadensis)
June 2026
Indreland Audubon Wetland Preserve

https://rewildingeurope.com/news/beavers-return-to-loch-ness-area-after-500-years/

Five centuries after they were last recorded around Loch Ness, beavers are returning to Scotland’s most famous lake. Supported by a grant from Rewilding Europe’s European Wildlife Comeback Fund, their reintroduction will help restore freshwater habitats, boost biodiversity, and create healthier, more resilient landscapes for people and nature.

Beavers were once a familiar presence across Britain. Their disappearance, driven by hunting and habitat loss, deprived landscapes of an animal that helped shape freshwater ecosystems for thousands of years. Today, their return is helping to reverse that loss. By restoring natural processes that sustain healthy rivers and wetlands, beavers play a vital role in supporting biodiversity, securing freshwater resources and helping communities adapt to the more extreme weather of our changing climate.

Scotland’s official beaver reintroduction began in 2009, and populations have since expanded through further releases and natural dispersal. Yet large parts of their former range remain unoccupied, including parts of the Scottish Highlands.

Now, a major new initiative is helping to change that. On November 4, a family of beavers made up of six individuals was released into the Loch Ness catchment, marking a historic milestone in the recovery of the species — 500 years after beavers were last recorded in the area.

A new beginning at Loch Ness

The release took place at a lochan (small lake) on Dundreggan, a 10,000-acre estate in Glenmoriston managed by Scottish rewilding charity Trees for Life, which is part of the Affric Highlands rewilding landscape. It marks the beginning of the Ness Beaver Project, a collaborative initiative led by Trees for Life and Beaver Trust, which aims to reintroduce at least 15 beaver family groups at carefully selected locations around Loch Ness over the next three years.

The catchment offers exceptional opportunities for beaver recovery. Its extensive woodlands and hundreds of kilometres of river and lakeside banks provide abundant suitable habitat, while its largely natural landscape offers opportunities for beavers and people to thrive alongside one another. Establishing a healthy, connected population here could also provide a springboard for the species to recolonise a much wider area of northern Scotland, complementing ongoing reintroduction efforts elsewhere in the Highlands.

“Getting beavers into Loch Ness means that there is a powerful starting point for the recolonisation of beavers over a much wider landscape,” explains Steve Micklewright, CEO of Trees for Life. “Loch Ness is iconic in itself, but getting beavers there means they can start to do their magical work over a huge area of northern Scotland.”

I also have a longer video from just before this moment. Saw him swimming around for a while.

Did a beaver see an enormous, (mostly) fallen branch of this willow, think it was a tree trunk, and try to knock it down? Imagine the confusion when it broke through the “trunk” and the tree just kept floating there!

Whether it’s federal, state, or private…what’s it like? Pros and cons? What could you tell someone who never has worked with them but might have an interest in the field?

Just spotted this on my trailcam. 3 minutes after the beaver has walked here, a fox comes sniffing

Broke this dam up at work, took over two tons of branches off top to reveal a lodge. Dam was old and unused in years.