Currently, three beavers still live in the Riga city canal between the building of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet and the National Theater. The municipality has gradually limited most of the trees with metal fences and will also continue feeding beavers with branches, because otherwise beavers tend to cause minor damage to greenery. Forced relocation of these beavers is not planned in the next few years.
On the order of the Housing and Environment Department of the Riga City Council, the specialists of the Riga National Zoo have been observing and feeding the beaver for several years. Twigs are delivered about once a week, depending on how intensively the beavers consume the delivered supplies. A more intensive delivery takes place in the fall, because at this time these rodents build food reserves for the winter. They drag large quantities of branches into the water body so that they can feast on them underwater when the water body is covered with a layer of ice in the winter spelgon. On the other hand, in spring and summer, beavers feed on various aquatic plants, so the need for branches is small. The branches intended for feeding are placed in two places – on the bank of the canal opposite the building of the Latvian National Opera and Ballet on Krišjāņa Barona Street and near the building of the Museum of the University of Latvia on Kronvalda Boulevard, formerly known as the Faculty of Biology of the University of Latvia.
Observations by the monitoring staff show that one family of beavers lives in the city canal – two or three animals, which replaced the previous owners of this territory last year. The beaver herd is said to be peaceful and does not cause significant transformations in the city canal, unlike previous years, when the newly arrived owners of the area were actively moving and creating their own order and a new home.
A monitoring camera is also located near the feeding places, which allows specialists to conduct ecology and ethology (animal behavior) studies of the beavers living in the canal. During the summer, beavers can be observed along the entire length of the channel, but more often, of course, they stay near their caves. In connection with the construction of the Rail Baltica node in the center of Riga and the background of increased disturbances in the construction area, beavers avoid staying in this section of the city canal.
There are several hundred other beavers in the capital, whose population has grown rapidly due to favorable conditions, such as the lack of natural enemies. Information available to specialists shows that beavers are everywhere there is water. Beavers, as large rodents, live both in small rivers (Dreiliņupīte, Šmerļupīte, Mārupīte, Langa, Piķurga, Bišumuižas ditch, Mailes ditch, etc.) and in parts of the drainage systems that are located away from populated areas, for example along Jaunciems gatvi in Trīciciem. Beavers also live in areas where there is no watercourse, but near water – in Lucavsala, Ķipsala, along Buļļupi, near Ķīšezer, near Jugla lake, along the Hapak ditch.
To improve their living conditions, beavers have a strong desire to build dams in rivers, ditches and culverts, flooding large areas, in addition to gnawing or damaging trees in large quantities and in large areas to build dams. This causes losses to both residents and the municipality – buildings are damaged, forests, meadows, gardens and small gardens are swamped.
The municipality regularly clears rivers, drainage ditches and other bodies of water from dams made by beavers (approximately once every two weeks). In the last three years, more than 27,000 euros have been spent on demolishing the dams, as well as felling trees damaged by beavers. Beavers tend to quickly rebuild dams that have been destroyed. It is difficult to calculate the total financial losses due to beavers, because the depletion of natural resources, the effect of increased soil moisture on infrastructure and properties, environmental pollution and the use of additional resources for liquidation must also be taken into account.
In order to address the issue related to the number of beavers and the damage caused by them, the Hunting Coordination Commission of the Riga City Council, which includes experts from various fields, unanimously decided last year to reduce the number of beavers by attracting a licensed hunter, as only hunters have the right to regulate the population of wild animals.
There is no place to relocate the beavers as they cause losses to farmers and landowners. Therefore, it was decided that part of the beavers living on the outskirts of Riga will be caught using traps. It is not planned to catch all the beavers, only to reduce the activity of the beavers so that flood risk prevention and emergency works do not have to be done every other week.
In order to limit the activities of beavers in the capital, funding was allocated and a procurement tender was announced, in which, unfortunately, no applicant applied. After that, a negotiation procedure was held with the hunters, as a result of which a contract was concluded with one of the hunters for catching beavers until the end of 2024. The amount of the contract is 30,000 euros (on average 1,250 euros per month) and it is planned to catch 60 to 80 beavers during the execution of the contract.
According to the contract, the hunter must hunt beavers with traps that must be checked regularly, as well as dispose of the hunted animals. In addition to that, the hunter must perform a professional survey, identification and mapping of beaver habitats and damage sites, beaver observation with hunting cameras and thermal cameras in the dark, as well as the obtained information must be handed over to the municipality for further analysis.
Riga municipality takes care of animals on a daily basis – both by controlling stray pets and taking them to shelters, and by transporting large wild animals that have accidentally entered the capital city, such as moose and wild boar, to forests further away from Riga.
