Category: Animal Welfare

  • Red Squirrel

    By The Bevis Trust In , , | June 15, 2020

    Some years ago we were contacted by the Cistercian monks who own 600 acre Caldey Island off the Welsh coast. Once farmed, it was now falling into desuetude and the few monks still there were getting elderly. We first arranged to rid the island of Brown Rats (Rattus norvegicus) by systematic poisoning over two winters using pest control contractors. Then, through the…

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  • Otterly wonderful

    By The Bevis Trust In , | June 25, 2019

    The sun never has to try very hard to lure me away from a desk and computer screen, and Thursday was no different.   All day it teased, dancing between ominous clouds but when it finally showed promise to stay a while, I happily pressed ‘save’ and closed the lid on my laptop. Eyeing the Himalayan…

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  • Beaver watching

    By The Bevis Trust In , , , | June 4, 2019

    With the long summer evenings we have quite a few visitors coming to see the beavers. Currently the beavers emerge around 20.15, but sometimes earlier than this. While most people get to see them, some don’t realise that you have to sit still, without speaking and just watching quietly. Beavers hear and smell very well…

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  • Otters

    By The Bevis Trust In , | April 30, 2019

    In theory it’s lovely to have otters on the lake, like this one caught on camera last night. The reality is that they have cleaned out all the fish and if this one stays much longer it will kill all the young goslings, ducklings, moorhens and dabchicks. In years when an otter takes up residence…

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  • Caldey Red Squirrels

    By The Bevis Trust In , , | April 28, 2019

    I did an interview with Jemima Childs last week for her university project. Jemima is the daughter of Ben who manages Caldey Island. Great news to hear that our Red Squirrel colony that we started two years ago has now reached about 30 individuals. Some of them are getting tame enough for visitors to see…

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  • Beaver update

    By The Bevis Trust In , | April 26, 2019

    After three years of answering increasingly silly questions from Natural Resources Wales about our Beaver re-introduction programme we have withdrawn the application. We spent £6,000 providing the veterinary Disease Risk Assessment which has been passed by the Chief Veterinary Officer but then NRW wanted us to undertake water quality surveys of the entire river catchment…

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  • Beavers in Wales

    By The Bevis Trust In , | April 25, 2019

    Bryony Coles, formerly Professor of Prehistory at the University of Exeter has just published an interesting book: Avanke, Bever, Castor: the story of Beavers in Wales. She examines the evidence for the presence of Beavers since the last Ice Age, as sub-fossil remains, in place names and myths, and in the written records since Geraldus…

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  • DEFRA and General Licences

    By The Bevis Trust In , , | April 24, 2019

    DEFRA has rescinded the General Licence to control a number of pest species such as crows, following a legal challenge by a pressure group ‘Wild Justice’. Now DEFRA are busy sorting out a new legal route which no doubt will entail more red tape and a wider disregard of the law in the countryside. Crows…

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  • Water Rail

    By The Bevis Trust In , | November 12, 2018

    It was lovely to collect in the wildlife cameras this morning and find that we had been visited over the weekend by a water rail. We have picked up one before on camera so hopefully it means we have a resident. The cameras are currently set to find out which beavers are doing what. We…

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  • Spring Update

    By The Bevis Trust In , , , | May 8, 2018

    It has been manic on the farm for weeks. The tree planting was completed in time, with 18,000 mixed hardwoods gone in. We cut a new track across this north bank and while it is raw is a good time to get new plants established. So we have transplanted bluebells, primroses and snowdrops from other…

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