Eurasian beavers, keystone species, have returned to inhabit much of its former range following near extinction. Evidence repeatedly demonstrates that beavers can provide important riparian biotic and abiotic ecosystem services. These abilities to modify their surroundings can cause conflict, especially in prime agricultural landscapes. Understanding how beavers are utilizing and expanding in European catchments is therefore essential. This paper presents a methodology by which the spatial extent and environmental impact of beavers can be quantified via distinctive field signs. This has widespread application in understanding their distribution, expansion, and any management implications. Its application is tested within two diverse case studies, the Tayside catchment, Scotland, and the Wye catchment, Wales/England, collectively covering >10,000 km² of catchment area. A minimum of 114 active territories were identified in Tayside and a small number of free‐roaming beavers with no strong evidence of breeding territories were recorded on the River Wye. This study demonstrates that a detailed, time and cost efficient but also easily replicable, field survey method can allow estimates of beaver territorial zones when combined with geospatial analysis and expert assessment. As populations of Eurasian beavers continue to expand and be actively reintroduced across Europe, this survey‐based approach can be utilized to increase understanding of their distribution, population dynamics, and territorial behavior, as well as informing management strategies and identifying areas of potential benefit and/or conflict.

中文翻译：

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在将欧亚海狸重新引入英国河流集水区后，使用野外勘测来估算空间分布和领土动态

濒临灭绝的欧亚海狸是重点物种，现已恢复栖息。反复的证据表明，海狸可以提供重要的河岸生物和非生物生态系统服务。这些修改周围环境的能力会引起冲突，尤其是在主要的农业景观中。因此，了解海狸如何在欧洲流域利用和扩展是至关重要的。本文提出了一种方法，通过该方法可以通过独特的田间标志量化海狸的空间范围和环境影响。这在理解其分布，扩展以及任何管理含义方面具有广泛的应用。在两个不同的案例研究（苏格兰的Tayside流域和威尔士/英格兰的Wye流域）中对它的应用进行了测试，这两个案例的总覆盖率超过10集水区^2个。在泰赛（Tayside）至少确定了114个活动领地，并且在怀河（River Wye）上记录了少量自由漫游的海狸，但没有强有力的繁殖地证据。这项研究表明，结合地理空间分析和专家评估，一种详细的，节省时间和成本，但又易于复制的野外调查方法可以估算海狸的领地。随着欧亚海狸种群的不断扩大并在整个欧洲范围内积极地重新引入，这种基于调查的方法可用于增进对它们的分布，种群动态和领土行为的了解，并为管理战略提供信息并确定潜在的利益和风险。 /或冲突。