Life in the raw has seen two young beaver kits which had been released on Loch Lomond, recently, killed in a suspected otter attack.

The pair had been relocated from Tayside with their parents and the rest of their brood to the area in a much publicised and, in some areas, criticised move.

Apparently, the dead beavers and an otter were spotted on remote camera footage last week and a later post-mortem confirmed that an otter had preyed on at least one of the kits. The other kit's body has yet to be found, but RSPB Scotland – which is involved in the beaver project – said it suspected the second kit had suffered the same fate.

The charity said young beavers were vulnerable to falling prey to otters, foxes, pine martens, birds of prey and large pike. "Studies also show that kit mortality can be quite high, especially in their first year. None of this makes it any easier and we're very sad to have lost these kits despite it being a natural process," it said in an on-line blog.

Loch Lomond is the third location in Scotland where beavers have been moved to since being first reintroduced trial to Knapdale, in Argyll, in 2009. That trial also suffered from population loss and had to be supplemented with more beavers which had come in from Norway.

They are a now a protected species in Scotland and have been causing much damage around the River Tay and its tributaries after a population had been let go into the countryside illegally.

In 2021, the Scottish Government supported mover to relocate beavers from where they were considered a pest to more suitable habitats.

The Loch Lomond beavers were released into part of a national nature reserve jointly managed by RSPB Scotland, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority and NatureScot.