Beavers are set to recolonise the UK – here’s how people and the environment could benefit

For an animal that looks like a soggy fur ball with the feet of a duck in need of a pedicure and a tail cut from an old tyre, the beaver’s public image is doing rather well lately.

That’s despite centuries of hunting that caused the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) to disappear from the UK during the 1500s.

Now they’re back.

In 2015, two beaver families were …