Are European Beaver the same species as was present in Wales and the British Isles?

Yes. There is only one species of beaver (Castor fiber) native to Europe, and with extinction in Wales occurring only around 400 years ago, in evolutionary terms there has been no time for development of a separate species in Britain.

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What records exist of beaver in Wales?

Writing in the 12 th Century, the Welsh cleric Sylvester Gerald de Barri ('Giraldus Cambrensis') says there were beavers on the river Teify, at Cilgerran in Cardiganshire.

Gerald was recording his journey with Archbishop Baldwin who was on a preaching mission to Wales in 1188, to raise support for the Crusades.

This seems to be the last natural historic record of living beavers in England and Wales, although there is an oral tradition of beaver in north Wales, at Nant Francon, which refers back to around 1650-1700 [Reference Professor Bryony Coles, Exeter University].

Prior to that Hywel Dda, King of Wales (most of it!) in the 10th century, specifies in the Law that beaver skins, together with ermine and pine marten, are royal privileges.

In evaluating compensation in the Law , a beaver's skin is 60 pence. This was the worth of a 'best horse'- perhaps £5,000 or more in today's money. This is a sure indicator that beaver were very scarce and thereby valuable in the Wales of 950 AD. [Reference Lynn Hughes]

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