This demand would lead to the creation of Wolf Cubs in 1916 for boys 8 years of age and up but there was still pressure from the younger brothers to become involved.

[5][6] The creation of an under eight provision was sparked by the launch of other younger sections in other youth organisations at the time, including the Anchors section of the Boys' Brigade, which some feared was partly causing a drop in numbers of Cubs experienced at the time.

[5][6] That year The Chief Scout's Advance Party Report was published, which brought to a close a period of reflection undertaken since January 1964 and led to significant structural changes within the organisation, with the question of a pre-Cubs section having been looked into.

The report came to the conclusion that any lowering of the age for the newly renamed Cub Scouts below 8 years old would result in difficulties in retaining the older Cub Scouts and that allowing boys under 8 should not be allowed, to maintain a uniform approach.

[11] Despite the report's recommendations other under eight provisions were trialled and investigated in a number of different locations internationally and unofficially in the United Kingdom.

By 1975 there existed in England an 'Adventurers' section in Dulwich and West Peckham in South London, 'Mini-Cubs' in Lancashire, 'Tweenies' in Southwark and 'Pre-Scout training' in Brighton.

There were also a number of sections in Scotland including Acorns (A Cub OR Nearly So) in Coatbridge, Mini-Cubs and Tenderpads in Dundee and over a dozen groups in Glasgow of varying names including Panthers, Beavers, Chimps, Sparks and Mini-Cubs, with an advisory body.

[13] A common uniform of a grey shirt and emerald green necker was introduced, as was a programme that did not use any of the Cub Scout content at all, instead linked to four pawprint badges and the name Beavers as a backronym: Building, Energy release, Adventure, Variety, Entertaining, Religion and Storytelling.

[6][15] In 1973, a resolution was published requesting Beavers be formally adopted into the structure of Scouting in Northern Ireland, and in early 1975 this was approved.

[13] In 1974, the youth scene had developed enough that a new review and report were commissioned to look into the matter of a Pre-Cub section.

[6] A small change to the uniform came in 1990 when Beaver Scouts were able to wear their group necker instead of a turquoise one.

The uniform was now a light blue sweatshirt and there was a much bigger range of badges for the Beaver Scouts to earn, aligning the programme with the other sections.

[21] A logo was introduced along with all publications for the section being relaunched to reflect the new programme and wider Scout Association brand and visual identity.

[36] These nine new badges looked at Camp Craft, Collector, Communicator, Cyclist, Disability Awareness, Gardener, Photographer, Space and Sports with a new staged activity badge that captured the number of water activities completed (Time on the Water).

[44][45] In January 2018 the latest activity badges were added for Book Reader, mirroring some of the requirements of the Summer Reading Challenge run by libraries each year, and Builder, which involved using construction toys such as Lego.

[4][48] Often meeting weekly, a Beaver Scout group is referred to as a colony with usually no more than 24 young people.

The badges and awards achieved by the young people help support this programme and were initially divided into themed areas.

[23][51] Creativity had always been a part of the programme before being made a separate zone, but previously it had been used as a way of exploring the other areas.

There was a slight decrease in numbers between 2018 and 2020 which matches a similar decline in the overall birthrate; 2012 was the high point for births in the UK with these children reaching Beaver Scout age in 2018.

Prior to 2002, the motto was Fun and Friends, which is reflected in the usual programme for the section, which made use of play to put across Scouting ideas of friendship and community.

[70] Beaver Scouts can gain a number of awards and badges covering the range of the programme.

[41] The current badges are: Animal Friend, Book Reader, Builder, Camp Craft, Collector, Communicator, Cook, Creative, Cyclist, Disability Awareness, Experiment, Explore, Faith, Gardener, Global Issues, Health and Fitness, Hobbies, International, Photographer, Safety, Space and Sports.

[75] Current Staged Activity badges that are available are Air Activities, Community Impact, Digital Citizen, Digital Maker, Emergency Aid, Hikes Away, Musician, Nautical Skills, Navigator, Nights Away, Paddle Sports, Sailing, Snowsports, Swimmer and Time on the Water.

Challenge Awards are often completed as a Colony as part of their normal activities rather than individually, and cover the range and aims of the programme.

[40] They were introduced in January 2015 and replaced six previous yellow diamond-shaped awards that reflected the programme zones used prior to 2015.

The pole is similarly lightweight, usually made of aluminium and with a wooden pike mount.

[86] When the section was relaunched in 2002, the Beaver Scout logo consisted of the uppercase red word 'Beavers' with a thick yellow outline laid on top of a circular motif that resembled a cross section of a tree, showing the bark and tree rings in different shades of brown.

The typeface used for the logo and for headings in Beaver Scout publications was House Industries' Funhouse with Frutiger used for body text in line with the rest of the association.

The wordmark retained the Funhouse typeface of the previous look; however, this was not used in any other publication; instead TheSerif was used for headings in line with the rest of the association and Frutiger continued to be used for body text.

Beaver Scout publications moved away from pictures and outlines and instead featured a character-led artwork style that the association intended as "joyous and imaginative".