The Scottish Highlands has seen the return of beavers, the release of captive-bred wildcats, and increased numbers of other species as rewilding pays off At 6am, most guests are still fast asleep in the cabins, shepherds’ huts, yurts and stone cottages dotted across the Bamff Estate, a 530-hectare (1,300-acre) property on the southern edge of the Scottish Highlands. A few, however, are already awake, cameras and binoculars in hand as they stand around a pond a few hundred metres from the towers and turrets of Bamff House. If you want to see beavers at work, it pays to get up early.

As the salmon-pink sky begins to brighten, the creators of the pond are winding down after a busy night of activity. Two of the industrious rodents periodically re-emerge from their lodge, disturbing the glassy surface of the water with V-shaped ripples as they scour the area for the most succulent vegetation. Occasionally, one clambers over the dam at the end of the pond and swims downstream, its broad, paddle-like tail disappearing into the twilight.

With the estate drawing growing numbers of beaver watchers, the animals seem unperturbed by the excited crowd of onlookers. Hunted for their fur, meat and scent glands, beavers were driven to extinction in Britain in the 16th century. Today, as part of the burgeoning Scottish rewilding movement, they are being reintroduced at an increasing number of sites across the country, helping to create complex wetland habitats that benefit a wide range of ot.