Beavers back in Derbyshire after 800 years

Beavers have been reintroduced to Derbyshire after an 800-year absence from the county.

The dam-building rodents are being released in parts of England and Wales in the hope they can restore wetland habitats and boost other species.

They were extinct in the UK by the 16th Century and were last recorded in Derbyshire 800 years ago.

Two adult male and female beavers were captured in Tayside in Scotland before being transported to their new home at the 46-hectare Willington Wetlands Nature Reserve in Derbyshire.

"They're a great landscape engineer, they'll create channels, they'll create dams," Jo Smith, of Derbyshire Wildlife Trust, said.

"They'll improve the habitats so that all of the other species can thrive much better and it means that we will have a much, much wilder landscape."

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