Wildlife

Wild U.K. Beavers to Be Made Extinct ... Again

Wildlife campaigners say they are outraged by the U.K. government’s plans to capture the first wild beavers to be seen in the English countryside in 500 years.

Beavers were hunted to extinction during the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century.

In January, night-vision footage revealed that up to three beavers had set up home along the River Otter, which runs through Somerset and Devon.

They have since become a tourist attraction but have also felled trees around their new home.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it plans to capture and “rehome” the toothy animals and is looking for a zoo or wildlife sanitary to take them in.

Some say the countryside has changed since the beavers disappeared, and there needs to be a study to see how their reintroduction might affect today’s environment. Others say they want to make sure the dam-building creatures are disease-free.

But wildlife consultant Derek Gow told the Daily Mail: “This will be the first time in history that we have exterminated a native mammal twice, setting an extraordinary historical precedent.”