BEAVERS' LOVE MATCH

Furry creature living near lake acquires a potential mate ... and it's hoped mystery pair will spark a surge in eco tourism

- By ANDREW FORGRAVE

Beavers have set up home at the Park in the Past's lake Image: Park in the Past

(Park in the Past)

A MYSTERY beaver living next to a North Wales lake has astonished its custodians by somehow acquiring a potential mate.

No one knows how either of them got to the 35-acre lake, part of a rewilding project to recreate a prehistoric landscape in the heart of Flintshire.

Since February 2021, a lone brown-coated beaver has been living at Park In The Past (PITP), an attraction featuring a reconstructed Roman fort. To avoid disturbance, its presence was kept under wraps until earlier this year.

So when a second “beige” beaver was spotted on a wildlife camera, PITP volunteers could scarcely believe their eyes. Already there are signs the pair have coupled up: they were filmed having a domestic squabble over a gnawed stick.

Now there are tentative hopes the patter of baby beavers - known as kits - may be heard next summer. The animals typically breed between December and April, with litters of up to four kits born between May and July.

"We'd noticed a sudden increase in tree chewing and felling," said PITP publicity officer Phil Hirst. "Now we know there are two of them, it's as if they are preparing for winter and building up their reserves for the breeding season."

Having been hunted to extinction some 400 years ago, the Wildlife Trusts in Wales have been working for two decades to restore them to the Welsh landscape.

Although one family is thought to have been established in the Dyfi estuary for several years, official beaver introductions in Wales have lagged behind those in England and Scotland.