Reading: Non-Fiction (KS2) - Worksheets, Questions and Revision

Beavers Return to Britain

Source written for Revision Library (original, copyright-free). An information text about the reintroduction of beavers to the United Kingdom, written in the style of a KS2 non-fiction reading passage.

For over four hundred years, no beaver dam blocked a British stream. Wolves, wild boar and lynx had already vanished from the British countryside, and by the early sixteenth century the beaver had joined them, hunted to extinction for its thick fur, its meat and a musky substance called castoreum that people once used in medicines and perfume. Today, though, something remarkable is happening. Beavers are back, and rivers across the United Kingdom are slowly beginning to change shape once again.

A Long Absence

Britain's last wild beavers were wiped out by around 1526, according to most historians, although a few believe that small, hidden populations survived in remote parts of Scotland for a little longer. Without beavers, many rivers ran straight and fast, rushing floodwater downstream instead of holding onto it. Wetlands dried out, and the plants and animals that depended on slow, marshy water gradually disappeared too.

Nature's Engineers

Beavers earn their nickname of 'nature's engineers' because they reshape their surroundings more dramatically than almost any other wild animal in Britain. Using nothing but their teeth, their front paws and an instinct they are born with, beavers gnaw down small trees and drag branches, mud and stones into rivers to build dams. A single family of beavers can build a dam thirty metres long in just a few nights, and some determined colonies have built dams that stretch for hundreds of metres.

How Beavers Change a River

A beaver dam slows the flow of water, creating a calm pond behind it where the beavers build a domed home called a lodge. The entrance to a lodge is always underwater, which keeps foxes and other predators out. Behind each dam, the pond spreads sideways into the surrounding land, forming shallow pools and soggy wetland. This might sound messy, but it is exactly what many other species need. Frogs, dragonflies, otters and wading birds all move into beaver wetlands within a year or two, and fish often thrive in the cool, oxygen rich pools that dams create.

Why Beavers Matter

Beaver dams do more than provide a home for wildlife. During heavy rain, a dam acts like a natural brake, holding back water that would otherwise rush downstream and flood towns and farmland. During dry spells, the same pond releases water slowly, keeping streams flowing when they might otherwise run dry. Scientists studying a beaver site in Devon found that a single family of beavers reduced the height of floodwater reaching a nearby village by nearly a third. Beaver ponds can also trap mud and pollution before it reaches rivers further downstream, so the water flowing out the other side is often cleaner than the water that flowed in.

The Return

The first beavers to return to the British countryside in centuries were spotted living wild on the River Otter in Devon in around 2008, most likely descendants of animals that had escaped from captivity nearby. Rather than removing them, conservationists asked to study the beavers instead, and in 2020 the government agreed that they could stay permanently. Since then, beavers have been carefully reintroduced to sites in Scotland, Wales and several counties in England, always released under licence and closely monitored by scientists. Not everyone has welcomed their return; some farmers worry about flooded fields and blocked ditches, so conservation groups now work closely with landowners to manage the dams that cause problems while leaving the rest of a beaver's engineering well alone.

Looking Ahead

Four hundred years after the last splash of a beaver's tail disappeared from British rivers, the sound is being heard again. Whether this quiet, hardworking animal can fully reclaim its place in the British countryside still depends on people, but for the rivers, and for the wildlife sheltering within them, the return of the beaver is already making a difference.

Fact File: The Eurasian Beaver

- Latin name: Castor fiber

- Typical weight: up to 30 kg, about the same as a large dog

- Diet: bark, leaves, water plants and grasses (beavers do not eat fish)

- Top swimming speed: about 8 km/h

- Tail: flat, scaly and paddle shaped; used for swimming, steering and as a warning signal when slapped hard on the water