Beavers were driven to extinction across much of western Europe, including the British Isles
Credit: Getty
In Britain it took endless committee meetings, legal challenges, battles with farmers and millions of pounds to reintroduce the beaver.
In Italy, they are coming back of their own accord, ambling over the border from neighbouring Austria and Slovenia.
After an absence of nearly 500 years, a beaver has been spotted in a valley in the Dolomites, the Val Pusteria.
The first clues that the giant rodent might back be back on Italian soil after almost five centuries was noticed by a hunting guide who spends his days roaming the mountains and forests.
Reinhard Pipperger saw that young trees had been felled along a stretch of the Sesto river.
“At first I thought someone had chopped them down with an axe. But then I looked more closely and saw the teeth marks. They were cut recently – I would estimate the beaver has been in the area for a couple of months,” he told The Telegraph.
The beaver in the Dolomites was photographed by a camera trap
Credit: South Tyrolean Hunters Association
A few days later came definitive confirmation – the beaver was photographed by a camera set up along the river by wildlife rangers.
Conservationists believe it is a young male, weighing around 25kg, and that it is busily building a lodge before winter arrives.
The last record of a beaver in Italy dates back to 1542, on the river Po in the north of the country.
The last surviving beaver in the Dolomites was recorded in 1594, but at the time the region was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire rather than Italian territory.
The species was intensively hunted not only for its fur but for its meat and a substance it secrets called castoreum, which was used in perfumes and medicines.
A beaver was spotted on the border between Austria, Slovenia and Italy two years ago, but this is the first time that the animal has been recorded deep inside Italian territory.
A valley in the Dolomites in northern Italy
For now, it appears that there is a single animal living along the river. “We will have to see if a female turns up. Then they might establish a breeding population, which would be great,” said Mr Pipperger, who guides hunters in search of wild boar, roe deer and chamois in the Dolomites.
“I’m pleased that the beaver is back. I had only associated it with wildlife documentaries from places like Russia and Canada.”
There is speculation that the beaver’s return could have been helped by the coronavirus pandemic, which has seen large parts of northern Italy placed under lockdown.
“I don’t know if there is a link but certainly there are fewer people in the mountains at the moment,” said Mr Pipperger.
Luca Lapini, a zoologist at the natural history museum in the city of Udine, said the appearance of the beaver was good news for the environment.
“In a couple of years, a beaver can increase the biodiversity of a river by 200-400%,” he said. “Plants and animals return. The tunnels made by the beaver aerate the soil.”
The beaver probably came from Austria, and had embarked on “an exceptional journey” to reach Italy, he said. It was likely that others would follow.
It is not just beavers that are reappearing in the region. Golden jackals have moved into northern Italy from the Balkans, wolves are on the rebound and there is a healthy population of brown bears, which were reintroduced from Slovenia in the 1990s.
Hunted to extinction in Britain and much of Western Europe, the Eurasian beaver now ranges from Scandinavia and Germany, eastwards into Russia and as far as Mongolia.
They are herbivorous and during the winter their diet consists of woody vegetation such as willow, aspen and birch.
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