Beaver population leaps ahead

Switzerland's beaver population has increased almost five-fold in the past 15 years.

Around 350 of the animals were counted in 1993 but the population is now up to 1,600, according to a Federal Environment Office survey published on Saturday.

Almost all the large rivers and lakes are populated by beavers, the survey showed.

“This evolution is remarkable if we think that the beaver was wiped out in the 19th century and only reintroduced in the 1950s,” a spokesman said.

The beaver was once hunted across Europe for its meat, fur and castoerum, a glandular secretion used in medicine. It was reintroduced in to Switzerland between 1956 and 1977 and currently figures on the list of endangered species.

Around 250 volunteers and environmentalists took part in the population count over the winter months.