The beaver named ‘Vlad the Impaler’ turned up at beauty spot in Wales, but won’t be finding love any time soon because authorities can’t afford to get the facilities needed for a mate
Wildlife experts have been left baffled by the mysterious appearance of a lone beaver at a beauty spot. The mammal – named ‘Vlad the Impaler’ – was first noticed by staff at Park in the Past in Hope, Flintshire, after they found signs of tree damage. But love isn’t on the cards for the rodent as the park can’t afford the £100,000 needed for beaver-proof fencing to introduce a mate.
Park CEO Paul Harston, 58, said: “We just saw damage to a tree, we said ‘what the hell’s that?’ People said it was deer sharpening their antlers, and then it just kept going so we put up wildlife cameras. Hey presto, there was Vlad the Impaler!”
The gnawed branches the beaver leaves behind sometimes float up from the lake bed – earning him the sinister nickname ‘Vlad the Impaler,’ with Paul joking that one could impale somebody were they to jump in.
The park manager has said Vlad’s presence is a ‘lovely encouragement’ to the rewilding project, which spans 120 acres. The 35-acre lake has no running water, so the rodent has not made any dams.
Despite speaking to other beaver release programs, none could help Park in the Past find out where Vlad had come from, with all saying their beavers were accounted for.
The dad of two added: “In my opinion this is the first beaver in Wales which is not part of a release program, it’s the first naturally arriving beaver, if you like.
“It’s great, but we kept it quiet because there’s a lot of ignorance around beavers. They’re very elusive. They’re really hard and very powerful animals.” Beavers were once widespread throughout Britain, but went extinct by the beginning of the 16th century.
However, according to Forestry England, they were heavily hunted for their fur and scent glands, which make castoreum. But they have returned to areas of the UK through reintroduction and rewilding efforts.
Beavers were released into an enclosure at Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve in Montgomeryshire in 2021, and recently at a nature reserve in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. However, releasing them without a licence is illegal.
The North Wales Wild Trust believes Vlad entered the Park in the Past site via the River Alyn, a tributary of the River Dee. Adrian Lloyd Jones, of the North Wales Wildlife Trust, said: “We are aware of the beaver at Park in the Past.
“We presume it has entered the site from the River Alyn, but we do not know how it came to be on the river as there are no known beaver populations nearby. As yet, there have been no authorised beaver releases to the wild in Wales.
“We delivered the first authorised release to an enclosure in 2021 [to the Dyfi Wildlife Centre] and are working to deliver an authorised wild release of beavers to the Dyfi catchment in the near future.”
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.