Scientific publications

At present two beaver’s species – Canadian and European ones – live in Karelia. Canadian beavers first appeared in Karelia early in the 1950s through dispersal from Finland, where 7 animals had been released in the mid-1930s (Linnamies, 1956; Siivonen, 1956; Segal and Orlova, 1961; Danilov, 1962; 1972; Lahti, 1968; Ermala et al., 1989). Later on, newcomer beavers were resettled a few times in other parts of Karelia.
European beavers appeared in Karelia in the 1960s as a result of migration from neighboring regions where they were released more than once.
The rate of beaver dispersal along the watercourses differed between different parts of Karelia. Thus, for the Canadian beaver it ranged from 12 to 19 km per year in southwestern Karelia (Danilov, 1975), from 1 to 4 km per year in western part, and was up to 30 km per year in northern and central Karelia (Danilov et al., 1974, 2007). In the south of Karelia Canadian and European beavers dispersed along watercourses at a rate of 8 km per year.
A major task for beaver studies in the European North of Russia today is delineation of the distribution ranges of the two species. This has to be done, first of all, to find out what is happening between the Canadian and the European beavers inhabiting the same area? Our studies have shown that in the south of Karelia European beavers occupy not only the territory inhabited by Canadian beavers in the 1980s, but also areas of Canadian beavers releases, and even as far as 50 km north and 70 km east of release sites. It has been established that different beaver species inhabit the tributaries of the same river, their closest colonies spaced less than 10 km apart. In the northeast of the republic, on the contrary, Canadian beavers have reached into the Arkhangelsk Region, and are, in all appearances, rapidly spreading into the settlement areas of the European beaver. The new species has already been reported from an area in the Arkhangelsk Region 50 km east of the border with Karelia.