A BEAVER tour on the National Trust’s Holnicote Estate between Minehead and Porlock sold out so quickly that a second one is being arranged.

The Monday, August 10, tour follows a presentation in the village hall in Wootton Courtenay for villagers to hear an update on what is happening with beavers which have been released on the Exmoor estate.

It was given by the trust’s beaver warden Mathieu Burtschell and project officer Jack Siviter, who then offered to take up to 15 people at £15 a time on an evening walking tour of the Holnicote beaver enclosure.

The event includes a briefing and talk before walking about a third of a mile to the enclosure where visitors will be shown the beaver dams and lodge.

They will then wait quietly for about 45 minutes to see if the beavers emerge before they have to return.

For anybody who has missed out on the August 10 event, another tour has been arranged for Monday, August 24, which needs to be booked online via a trust website.

But, again, people are being advised interest in the beavers is so high that the second tour is also likely to sell-out quite quickly.

The National Trust first released beavers into an enclosure on the Holnicote Estate in January, 2020, since when the animals have transformed the area into a thriving wetland ecosystem.

The beavers help to restore biodiversity loss, slow the flow of water, and manage the effects of climate change.

In 2021, the beavers had their first kit, the first beaver to be born on Exmoor in 400 years, and a year later twin kits were born.

The reintroduction proved so successful that earlier this year, the trust helped to release the first beavers for four centuries to live in the wilds of Exmoor.