'Wanted, dead or alive': Eccentric aristocrat, 70, is under fire for his posters offering a £1,000 reward to kill BEAVERS on his estate because they are wrecking his trees 

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An aristocrat is damning the presence of pesky beavers who are wrecking the trees at his country estate - and has come under fire for offering a £1,000 for anyone who can capture or kill them.

Eccentric Sir Benjamin Slade, 70, has erected 'Dead or Alive' posters around his 12-acres of parkland in Somerset.

He believes the animals have migrated into the nearby River Tone from the River Otter in Devon, where they were re-introduced into Britain in 2009.

Sir Benjamin Slade (pictured with part of his vintage gun collection) is offering a £1,000 reward for any beavers that are brought to him 

Despite the huge conservation effort to establish a stable population, Sir Benjamin says they are a nuisance and are 'breeding like rabbits.'

His wanted posters read: 'Beaver Sightings! at Woodlands Castle. WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE.

'£1000 reward. For crimes against trees. Beavers have been cutting down our trees!'

Sir Benjamin, worth a reputed £20 million, said: 'You get people shouting about how beavers are wonderful.

'But they're not, they are a nuisance. They eat the trees and strip them of their bark.

The 70-year-old has erected these 'Dead or Alive' posters around his 12-acres of parkland in Somerset

'They're not endangered. They're endemic. They breed like rabbits and are all over Europe.'

Sir Benjamin put up the posters last week in the hope the beavers would be caught so they could be moved off his estate.

Conservationists condemned the peer - although experts point out it is not illegal to kill beavers.

The animals were reintroduced to the wild in 2009 after being extinct in the UK for more than 500 years.

A colony has now been established on the River Otter and they are believed to have migrated into nearby waterways.

Despite the huge conservation effort to establish a stable population, Sir Benjamin says they are a nuisance and are 'breeding like rabbits'

They have now reached Woodlands Castle, a 17th Century country house near Taunton, which Sir Benjamin runs as a wedding and conference venue.

This is not the first time Sir Benjamin has courted controversy.

The childless baronet once considered a reality television show to try and find an heir to run his other estate, Maunsel House.

He said he would bequeath the estate to whichever stranger most closely matched his DNA - as long as they weren't Guardian readers, drug users or communists.

In 2007 he thought he had found an heir in rock star Isaac Slade, who fronts American band The Fray, but Mr Slade was too busy with his music career.

He took to Facebook to find love in 2012, placing an advert looking for a 'young lady' companion and offering a £50,000 salary plus car, house, food and holidays.

The advert read: 'You must have a shotgun certificate, be able to run two castles, an estate and a grouse moor. MUST be able to breed two sons (don't mind if she has bred before and is proven). A little private capital and income would be helpful. A large fortune would be more helpful.'

Sir Benjamin, who is worth a reputed £20 million, pictured here at his other property, Maunsel House

The baronet has now frozen his sperm and still hopes to father a child to keep his family's estate running.

Steve Hussey, of the Devon Wildlife Trust, said: 'We'd like to make contact with the landowner to see if we can come to another solution that doesn't involve killing beavers.

'It is true that beavers will cut down some trees but they're not going to fell forests or woodlands or anything like that.

'You can take very easy straightforward protective measures to stop beavers felling trees.

'Whenever we have consulted local people on beavers in the past they have overwhelmingly shown their support for beavers.

'Beavers have been persecuted in the past. It's because of human beings we lost our beavers - they were hunted for their meat, fur and scelt glands'

A photo supplied by Sir Benjamin which he claims shows a beaver gnawing on a tree outside his house

A beaver spotted lurking in the water in the grounds of Woodlands Castle, where they are wrecking the trees 

After being hunted to extinction in the 16th century, beavers were reintroduced into the wild by conservationists in 2009 in pilot projects in Scotland and Devon.

They are known as a 'keystone species' because of their significant positive influence on the environment.

Ecologist Derek Gow, who runs a sanctuary for beavers, said: 'They're not a protected animal in Britain at this stage so if anyone wants to shoot them they can.

'But beavers are part of the natural ecology and the only reason they haven't been here is because we have slaughtered them all in the past.

'Reintroducing beavers is something we should have done a very long time ago. They are a very important species for the natural environment.'