After more than 120 years since their disappearance, beavers are returning to Argesh County. A few years ago, they were also reintroduced in the Olt, Mures and Ialomita riverbeds, but the population is still low. Why do we need beavers?

Besides being very cute, ponds created by beaver dams attract many other species. This helps increase biodiversity as well as ecotourism.

Beavers disappeared from the territory of Romania at the end of the 19th century, they were excessively hunted for their fur, meat, as well as for their glands, which contain musk and were used in the perfume industry.

Beavers were brought from Germany

The first beavers were reintroduced in Romania between 1998-2003 by the Forest Research Institute in Brasov, and the program is now being continued by the Conservation Carpathia Foundation, which has started the reintroduction of this species in Argeș, on the south-eastern side of Fegureș. Mountains.

• “In Romania, after the 1990s, the forestry research institute from Brasov conducted a study and came to the conclusion that it is advisable to restore beavers. 184 beavers were brought from Germany, from Bavaria, between 1998 and 2003. These 184 beavers were resettled in the basin of three large rivers in Romania – Olt, Mures and Ialomitsa.
• In the last official report, in 2019, we had 2,500 people.
• The “Karpattia” Foundation continued the beaver reintroduction process. The idea of ​​the project is to catch 70 beavers from the northern part of the Fegaras mountains and bring another 20, up to the number of 90, from the Elbe river, from the north of Germany or the Netherlands, because they come from a genetically different population, and we are trying to bring genetic renewal to Romania “, he explained to HotNews.ro. Liviu Ungurianu, specialist of the Carpathian Conservation Fund.

The Conservation Carpathia Foundation project began in the fall of 2021 with the relocation of a pair of beavers and continued in 2022 and 2023, with 35 beavers relocated so far.

Although it seems easy at first, the work of reintroducing beavers to a new territory is difficult, from capturing them to moving them to their new habitat and monitoring them weekly for years to come. The cost of the project for 4 years is about 100,000 euros, the financing is carried out at the expense of non-returnable European funds.

• “Starting from the trapping side, you go before you trap, you find the places where they are, you watch how many beavers there are, what time they come out, what routes they take, what are the best places to set traps, how many beavers are there with chicks, because the idea is to relocate the whole family. It is unethical to leave a family member there, and we are making every effort to relocate the entire family. We also had a situation when one was caught, the second failed, and after 3 days we released him, because we could not catch his mate, and it was not right to destroy the family.
• Then we have a quarantine period, we take them to a place with water and food, but without interacting with them too much so that they don’t get used to humans, then we go to release them in a chosen place and watch them. . Before releasing them, we make a dam and a small shelter for them, as we assume they will. We were pleasantly surprised to see that where we built the dam and shelter, at least for the first two nights they stayed in that lake and even in our shelter, which made us happy. Then they left, but came back and continued the dam we made to adapt it to their needs,” explained the biologist.

Then there’s the monitoring part, so biologists can see where they’re going, if they’ve adapted, or if they’re causing damage.

“This spring, we had the first cubs in the wild”

So far, the program has been successful, with the first chicks emerging this spring.

“They are doing very well, we are happy because this spring we had our first puppies in the wild, they are 3 very cute puppies, we hope to have pictures of the puppies from the other two shelters. We don’t interfere, we just watch them. We go out at least once a week to each individual group and look for new signs that they have cut down, built new dams, made another shelter, or left. We also track them using radio telemetry. Some beavers have collars, so we can collect data,” explained Liviu Ungurianu.

Why were beavers resettled in Romania? Mainly to increase biodiversity, says the biologist, which is good for nature and also for ecotourism.

• “We say about the beaver that it is an umbrella species. The moment we have beavers in a habitat where we will encounter many more species than usual, the landscape changes for many years. When a family of beavers settles in a place, they create several dams.
• Small accumulations of water are formed behind these dams, which attract several species, from waterfowl, insects, small rodents, martens – weasels, stoats, otters – but also larger species, such as deer, because the corresponding lakes become watering places. New species of plants and trees also appear.
• We want to create a national park in the Fagarash Mountains, and beavers represent a favorable species for the idea of ​​biodiversity. For a tourist who comes and sees newts, frogs, species of butterflies, dragonflies, waterfowl, and otters near the lake, this is a plus. Practically around the pond created by beavers, you can have a quiet lesson in zoology,” explained Liviu Ungurianu.

One of the tasks of the project is to change the mentality of people about beavers – many consider them harmful. Although Argesh communities were consulted before the beavers were reintroduced, there are still villagers who believe the beavers steal their chickens or can cause flooding.

• “Before we introduced bison and beaver, we did some impact studies and asked the public what they thought, both were positive, but bison got better results. Those who have a bad opinion about beavers have either not received enough information or have been misinformed, because many people say about beavers that they can eat fish, flood houses, that they eat chickens, but this is not the case.
• We try to release them in as isolated areas as possible, away from cities, and through monitoring we know where they go. Suppose, absurdly, that they build a dam in an area where they flood a piece of land, there are some sort of control systems for that dam, basically it’s a mesh cube that goes into the lake, that cube has a pipe that goes through the body of the dam and goes down the by the current, this means that the water is kept at a normal level so that it does not flood, and the beaver dam is also preserved,” the biologist explained.

A few interesting facts about beavers

A beaver is a semi-aquatic mammal. It is represented by two species, European and American, and is the second largest rodent in the world after the capybara.

It is an animal that is very well adapted to an aquatic environment, but it also walks on land.

It has very thick and waterproof fur thanks to a substance it secretes and with which it constantly covers its fur. The front legs are adapted for carrying and digging, and the rear legs are adapted for swimming, similar to shovels. The tail is used for swimming.

They always dig their shelter in the ground, but you can get into it only from the water. At the first stage, dig a hole. From that hole, he makes a tunnel to the surface so that there is no shortage of oxygen. That tunnel, which is called a chimney, he covers it with branches and checks every night (because he is a nocturnal animal). Among the first things he does is check the chimney, if anyone has been there he has taken wood. As the family grows, so does the shelter.

The shelter can have up to 3 separate rooms: one bedroom, one hallway, where they store food for a short time, and where there is a toilet area, where they clean each other.

One of the claws on the hind legs is split so that it can stretch the fur, for example to remove scales and keep it waterproof.

They are 100% vegetarian: in spring, autumn and winter they eat tree species, their favorite is poplar, then willow. In their absence, it can also feed on hazelnuts, paltin, alder, which are also used to build a dam. In summer, they eat various types of succulent, non-woody plants, and then the impact on trees is less.

The beaver has very strong natural predators, the wolf, bear and lynx, and in rarer situations the fox. But the biggest threat is stray dogs.

People have nothing to be afraid of beavers, they are very peaceful animals, they avoid people, but they have a very strong bite, considering that they can cut down many types of trees of different diameters, so it is better not to touch them.

Source of information: Liviu Ungurianu, beaver expert