Month: May 2008

Pass an evening at the dam site and let yourself eavesdrop on some of the conversations going on around you. You will hear a host of beaver myths and myth-understandings, some that are alarming but intuitive and others that stretch the boundaries of common sense and make you smile. Most any time we spend at the site there will be moments of beaver watching and moments of beaver waiting, and I think this waiting period is what generates the imaginative explanations of their behavior. It has gotten better; last summer you might stand at the bridge and hear a dozen people talking about beavers eating fish. Martinez is much more beaver educated than it once was, but there is still room for growth. I thought I’d share some of the recent rumors that I have heard around town. I’ll start with the basics and then give you the more sophisticated fare.

• Beavers eat fish. False. This is a logical assumption in some ways since beaver dams appear to be designed to trap and increase fish population. Very often when I dispel this myth I am met with the followup question “Then why do they build dams?”. Beavers build dams to increase access to higher branches and because water to them feels like safety. They don’t always build dams though. There are plenty of beavers on wide rivers or in the delta that do just fine without a dam.

• There is another family living at Starbuck’s. False. Beavers are highly territorial and discourage other beavers from moving in by the use of scent mounds. Their territory is about two miles on either side of the dam. When our yearlings disperse they will have to go at least that far up or down stream.
• The baby beaver that died was poisoned. False. The baby that died in January died of roundworm parasite which had infected his brain and other organs. We are still waiting for results from the necropsy of the kit that died in April.
• Beavers have poison in their tail. False. I heard this from Luigi’s daughter who says it is the accepted explanation on the school yard of why beavers slap their tail to warn others away. She mentioned it when we were discussing beaver rescuer K.O.’s holding the beaver by the tail. I saw her blink and look a little horrified. “Aren’t they poisonous?” Don’t worry Luiza. Beavers have no poison and they slap their tail only because it makes a loud noise, just like a person clapping their hands.
• Muskrat tails grow up to be beaver tails. False. Bear with me here, this is complicated. I had a lovely chat at the farmer’s market with a very nice grandmother who told me about taking her granddaughter down to the dam. The granddaughter spied what most of us have at some time or another, and told her “I see a rat!” Grandma apparently laughed patiently and explained “No. It takes a while for their tails to get flat, honey. That’s a beaver.” Ahhh now that’s kind of precious, but no less untrue. Baby beaver tails start out flat and they grow up flat. Rat tails start out round and they grow up round. Different animal.
• The beavers will be better off on the reservation. False. I had to add this myth because it is the most potentially dangerous to our beavers’ well-being. Beaver trapping and relocation is a risky operation, and they would need to be quarantined for an unknown period and live in captivity. Even if the reservation had the right trees and ideal habitat (which no body knows because nobody has gone to verify this) it is a 5 hour drive to Plumas county, in a cage. Ask your cat how he feels about the drive to the vet and she can explain to you how this might be problematic.

Regular readers of this blog who are eager to show off their beaver expertise will soon have a “beaver quiz” to take here online. It’s in its final stages of launch, but it will definately give you a chance to demonstrate your hard won skills. In the meantime, keep your ears open for beaver myth-understandings, and do your part to gently dispel the rumors. Our beavers do all they can to make their behavior accessible, so it’s up to us to keep it real.