Activists looking to save wild beavers living in Tayside have turned to the internet to bolster their campaign.
Nearly 400 people have joined a Facebook group objecting to a Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) project that is trying to trap up to 20 of the mammals that live in the region.
The group, titled Save The Free Beavers of the Tay, has members from across Scotland and as far away as North America with the aim of preserving the creatures in their current home.
SNH, which is carrying out the trapping in conjunction with local landowners, have so far caught only one beaver since the initiative began in November, and claim that their release into the wild had been illegal.
However, campaigners insist that the animals should be left in their current home and have turned to the net in order to promote their cause.
A statement for the group said, “The dozen or so families of native beavers that are living and breeding in the Tay river and its tributaries are under threat from government agencies, all because their presence is an embarrassment to the official trial re-introduction in Argyll.
“Scottish Natural Heritage has contracted another agency to trap and remove all the beavers.
“They claim they will go to English zoos but it seems likely that many will have to be culled.
“Please support this group if you do not wish to see the pointless and expensive extermination of a native animal which contributes immense good to ecosystems.”
Scottish Natural Heritage maintains that the trapping of the beavers is necessary, and claim that their release was illegal and that they may not be appropriate species or types of beaver for Scotland.
SNH has also said that trapping will halt in the spring when females begin to give birth.
Photo used under Creative Commons licence courtesy of Flickr user gainesp2003.