Prof George Holmes and Gabriel Rowland say illicit releases need to be included in our conversations about which species belong in the UK, and who gets to decide this
The arrival of beavers in Norfolk (‘No one knows where it came from’: first wild beaver spotted in Norfolk in 500 years, 7 December), and Richard Foster’s sightings of beavers in Berkshire (Letters, 11 December), do not come as a surprise. It is part of so-called “beaver bombing” across Europe over the last 25 years, a form of civil disobedience whereby people, frustrated at what they see as expensive, obstructive bureaucracy around species reintroduction, take matters into their own hands and release animals without engaging with conservation bodies.
This bureaucracy can be alternatively framed as necessary ecological safeguards. Curiously, beavers popping up in Britain, Spain, Belgium, Italy and elsewhere can all be genetically linked to the Bavarian population. We have good evidence that pine martens, polecats, wildcats and various amphibian and butterfly species have been released across the UK without engagement with the relevant authorities.
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