Biologists believe beaver ponds support a greater amount and diversity of wildlife than any other ecosystem in the forest.

Beavers have unique adaptations that make them perfectly suited for a water-based park like Voyageurs. A beaver's lips close behind its front teeth, allowing it to swim with branches in its mouth and avoid drowning. In addition, its ears and nose valves close underwater and a membrane covers its eyes like goggles. Because of these adaptations, beavers can stay submerged in water for up to 20 minutes!

Parent and kit at work in the early morning.

His weight is 16.6 kg

Hard to resist that face! Rehabilitating baby beavers takes about 2 years - which is the same length of time it would take for them to leave their mom in the wild - so we're in it for the long haul!

Beavers' front teeth are orange.They need strong teeth to chew through wood so their tooth enamel contains iron, which makes them very strong, sharp, and orange. Because the orange enamel on the front wears away slower than the white dentin on the back, a beaver’s teeth self-sharpen as it chews on trees. Who knew???

This Earth Hour look optimistically to a future of nature recovery in Shropshire. Our Land and Water Team are introducing natural flood management techniques and working with landowners to improve the way catchments function to try and mitigate climate change's extreme weather. We now have an opportunity to release beavers into an enclosure at the 37 acre Old River Bed nature reserve in Shrewsbury. Beavers should be an integral part of a green recovery, playing a major role in helping nature to recover. These are just a couple of our projects and campaigns that we're working on to create a WilderFuture for all.

Their teeth consist of sharp incisors that are always growing but are kept the correct length by grinding against wood or their bottom teeth. Their teeth allow them the ability to fell large trees and Beavers can even close their mouth behind the incisors so that they can chew on sticks underwater.

It has to be really hard to moonwalk with webbed feet.

Patient update! The injured young beaver that arrived back in late fall has settled into his new, larger outdoor enclosure! He is now ready for more exercise, and the natural enrichment items we give him will allow his building instincts to shine through. He even has a large tub to swim and dive in. He's a very happy little beaver! Once he gets a bit bigger he will be ready to move to his final stage of rehabilitation: our large marine unit. There he will stay until he is ready for release in the fall. He is now almost doubled his intake weight and is doing very well. It's amazing to see how much this young beaver has overcome already in his short life after arriving with no ability to move his back legs. He's now running, swimming and tail slapping like beavers do!

They grow up so fast. One of the four kits swims past me as I sit on a log observing the fam. I wonder whether they've gotten used to me gawking at them all the time, or whether they never cared about my existence in the first place. I think it's the latter. They don't appear to acknowledge my presence in any way, and I think maybe I've made eye contact briefly only a few times. Also, after watching them so much, I've decided that the sound of a beaver kit whining to its parents is among the cutest animal sounds I've ever heard.

Their dams make cleaner water, more nutrient-dense soil, increase ground water storage, create more wetland habitats, and are responsible for the cycle of the forest!