Beaver burger anyone?
‘We should start eating the reintroduced rodents’
THEY have been reintroduced to Scotland’s forests and lochs after an absence of 400 years.
Now, beavers could be set to make another appearance – on the nation’s dinner tables.
A leading expert suggests that if the population grows, it could be hunted and used as a food source.
Roisin Campbell-Palmer says the rodent tastes ‘good, nicely braised – somewhere between brown hare and roe’.
She added: ‘It’s like deer – we cull a lot of deer. You could argue that we don’t eat enough of the deer. If they are being culled anyway, we should be utilising meat sources.’
Between 2009 and last year, beavers were flown in from Norway and released in Argyll as a part of a closely monitored pilot project.
The Scottish Government is due to decide by the end of the year on allowing a full-scale reintroduction.
Miss Campbell-Palmer, one of the chief scientists involved in the Scottish Beaver Trial, last night touted the enormous environment and tourism benefits of their release.
And in her new book, The Eurasian Beaver Handbook, she points out that if populations eventually need to be controlled this could bring other advantages, including recreational hunting, fur and meat.
Although hunting and cooking beaver sounds controversial – partly because of its rarity in Scotland – it is well established elsewhere.
Beaver fur hats and salami sausages are sold in Russia, while beaver tail soup and stew are eaten in Norway. Miss Campbell-Palmer ate beaver meat in Sweden.
Her book includes advice on population control and hunting, and a photograph of beaver stew.
Shooting beavers is allowed but if they are formally introduced it is likely permits would be needed.
Miss Campbell-Palmer said: ‘It will probably be a protected species if it comes back.
‘If we get to the stage where we are culling numbers, then why wouldn’t you utilise them? You can’t trade in beaver and eat it across Europe but on the fringes, Norway and Russia, there is a huge history of using them but having a healthy beaver population as well.’
Eurasian beavers were once native to Britain but fur traders had hunted them all by the 16th Century.
Their reintroduction to Scotland could help to stem flooding and restore habitats for other species.
But they are also controversial. Farmers in Tayside – where a colony has set up home – have complained of damage to trees and flooding.
The Scottish Government said: ‘The potential formal reintroduction of beavers raises complex issues around their management and legal protection. Ministers are considering these issues carefully.’
‘It tastes somewhere between hare and roe’