FAQ: How will you track released animals?
The Scottish Beaver Trial has employed a full-time Field Officer and part of her remit is to track the beavers.
Tracking the activities of animals in the wild is a task which requires a lot of man-power, team-work and time. We already have a taskforce of amazing volunteers who help our Field Officer track the animals and collect data to help assess their impact on the local environment. The information collected will be passed on to Scottish Natural Heritage, who has been tasked by the Scottish Government to co-ordinate the independent scientific monitoring of the trial. Training days were held in Knapdale in spring 2009 to equip all our volunteers with the field skills required to help keep tabs on our beavers.
The beaver families will be closely tracked year-round using a variety of techniques including radio telemetry, Satellite tagging, field sign surveys, direct observation, and health assessments and measurements.
In addition, the beaver's environment and other species that live there will also be carefully observed and recorded using methods including water quality testing, fixed point photography and surveys for many different species of animal and plant.
