"LONDON - The first beavers to live naturally in the wild in England for over 400 years have been given the green light to stay after a five-year trial showed their dam-building activities were good for wildlife and people.

Beavers, semi-aquatic vegetarian mammals, were hunted to extinction in Britain more than four centuries ago because people wanted their meat, fur and castoreum, a secretion that was used in medicine and perfumes.

But in 2013 a family of beavers was found to be living on the River Otter in Devon, a rural county in southwest England. It is not clear where the beavers came from and at first they were threatened with eviction."

Estelle Shirbon reports for Reuters August 6, 2020. [2]