London's history-making beavers are adapting to life in the capital

The site where they&#x27;ve put the beavers is a small parcel of land (less than 0.04 sq mi) next to an out-of-town retail park and industrial estate. I&#x27;m reasonably familiar with the site, and have walked the canal more a handful of times and driven the A4127 so many times I&#x27;ve lost count. The air quality here is poor, about 7.5 times the WHO annual air quality guideline values for PM2.5.<p>It&#x27;s a nice idea, but I can&#x27;t help but feel like the beavers probably had a better life in Scotland where they were taken from. Online sources suggest that a more normal habitat size would be an order of magnitude larger [1]<p>The problem with Greater London is how dense it all is; if we had better public transport connections and fewer London-centric employers (or indeed, more of an appreciation for remote working) it&#x27;d be possible for there to be more and larger green spaces which would help with the whole city being a massive urban heat island.<p>There are some glimmers of hope, the A4127 has become a nightmare to drive on recently due to HS2 works - a necessary evil - which will hopefully encourage more offices to be established between London and Birmingham. It&#x27;s a shame the wider HS2 scheme was castrated in yet another example of short-sighted thinking.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk&#x2F;beaver-faqs" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.gloucestershirewildlifetrust.co.uk&#x2F;beaver-faqs</a>

the Big Issue <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Big_Issue" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Big_Issue</a> was created to give genuinely homeless people self respect … a magazine they can sell rather than just beg for cash<p>sadly this great idea has been infiltrated in the UK by trafficked individuals under the command of modern slavers … there seems to be no action from the authorities or the press to stop this and bring the gang bosses to justice

So they put 5 beavers there? Do they not suffer from incest or will they add more later?

Reading about animals adapting to human environments, always reminds me of this image:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;1338&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;xkcd.com&#x2F;1338&#x2F;</a><p>Which is truly depressing. Wild animals have no choice: it&#x27;s either adapt to whatever little space remains for them, or go extinct.<p>Remember @ one time much of western Europe was covered in forests &amp; other rough terrain. And in coastal areas: river deltas, wetlands &amp; tidal zones. Animals like beavers <i>must</i> have been everywhere.<p>Then ~1600, humans cut most of those forests to make farmland, build houses, ships, bridges etc &amp; heat their homes in winter. And hunted many animals to extinction (probably earlier, too).<p>Sadly there&#x27;s no easy way to restore balance.

Why not introduce furry mammals that don&#x27;t need a large expanse of nature, but can adapt to and live directly in the urban environment. Something that could live in all sorts of corners of the city, even underground, and consume unwanted food from humans ...<p>I&#x27;m joking a bit, but I&#x27;m serious. Why are beavers better than rats?

So they really are in a pen? I cannot imagine londoners putting up with beaver activity outide of fenced&#x2F;walled areas. This sounds more like a zoo, very much the opposite of rewilding. What are they going to do when a new generation of beavers seeks a new stream to dam?

This happens in other big cities. In Berlin boars and foxes are part of city life now.

Can&#x27;t resist plugging the greatest Leslie Nielsen line ever to the twisted minds who thought the headline was a reference to the warmer days coming to London.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=AvWfbIe4X_4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=AvWfbIe4X_4</a>