Eurasian Beaver
Casto fiber
Eurasian beaver is a protected animal species that from historic point of view definitely belongs to our fauna. It is moreover fascinating by its ability to actively change the character of its environment. This fact unfortunately led in the past – together with other "beaver attributes" such as fur or castoreum – to strong dependence of beavers on human will to tolerate them in cultivated lands.
The Management Plan for Eurasian Beaver in the Czech Republic is therefore patterned on the need to solve the issues of this specific animal's conservation in the context of agricultural use of land by humans. Eurasian beaver is currently returning to almost the entire original occurrence range, including the Czech Republic. Beaver numbers in our country have been increasing for more than 30 years now, and their activities often get into conflict with the use of landscape elements in agriculture, forestry and water management. That leads to damages and to limited economic use of the beaver-influenced lands. For these reasons, it is necessary to look for solutions that will ensure the possibility of coexistence of both the interest in beaver protection and the agricultural interests in the landscape.
