Reintroducing beavers to their native habitat is an important step towards solving the freshwater biodiversity crisis, according to experts at the University of Stirling.
New research from the Faculty of Natural Sciences has provided further support to previous work that has shown beavers have an important impact on the variety of plant and animal life.
The latest study, led by Dr Alan Law and Professor Nigel Willby, found that the number of species only found in beaver-built ponds was 50 percent higher than other wetlands in the same region.
Dr Law, Lecturer in Biological and Environmental Sciences, said: “Beavers make ponds that, at first glance, are not much different from any other pond. However, we found that the biodiversity – predominantly water plants and beetles – in beaver ponds was greater than and surprisingly different from that found in other wetlands in the same region.
Read more at: University of Stirling
This is professor Nigel Willby. (Photo Credit: University of Stirling)