A FINAL report has been published into the trial reintroduction of beavers into the Scottish countryside - and it is now up to the Scottish Government to decide what steps to take next.

The organisations behind the trial - the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust - published the final report on what was the first ever trial of a mammal species reintroduction into the UK, beginning in 2009 in the Knapdale Forest, mid-Argyll, and ending in May this year.

The new report documents the entire process of the Scottish Beaver Trial, from the licence application through the release of the beavers and to the end of the monitoring period.

Last month, Scottish Natural Heritage published six of the independent scientific monitoring reports that will be used for a Ministerial decision on the future of beavers in Scotland.

Project manager Simon Jones said: "The Scottish Beaver Trial Final Report documents every part of the reintroduction process. If there are any further reintroductions of beavers to Scotland, our story will prove to be essential reading. Beavers have never been legally reintroduced to Scotland before, for that reason, this report records the various lessons learned by the SBT team during the course of the project."

Field operations manager for the trial, Roisin Campbell-Palmer, added: "A very special trial, the SBT allowed for ground breaking research and thorough monitoring taking place in Knapdale over the five year period. We hope our findings and learnings will form a template for similar future reintroduction projects across the UK and beyond."

The trial helped to understand how the beavers behaved in a Scottish environment and during the five year period became a tourist attraction for visitors to the Argyll area.

The findings of the trial will help advise informed decisions to be made about the future of the species - but the future of beaver reintroduction is ultimately up to the Scottish Government, with a Ministerial decision expected in the second half of 2015.