Beasts and Children

heidi08 Educational, New Species November 17, 2009

If you were born between 1965 and 1975 you probably couldn’t avoid hearing the Carpenter’s tune or seeing the film about some camp misfits who identified as buffalo advocates. I was thinking about buffalo this week because one of Hope Ryden’s contentions is that no animal in America was hunted as fiercely or as extensively as the beaver. I thought about the rail trains that would drive out to the great plains just so men could shoot the great beasts from the car. I thought about pelts taken with meat that was never used for food, and I wondered if she was right. There were once an estimated 60,000,000 bison in North America. We seem to have set some fairly deadly plans for several species.

Then I remembered that buffalo lived in the great plains and beaver live everywhere there’s water in every state of the union except Hawaii.. Beaver slaughter had already been at its peak for two hundred years before the fur trade turned its attention to Bison. In fact, it was the demanding European market for beaver fur that drove the Buffalo hunting of the 1800’s.

The near extermination of the American Bison did not occur just in a few short violent years. The fur trade, which began in the 1600s, initially focused on beaver but then demanded that bison (buffalo) robes be shipped to Europe. By the early 1800s, trade in buffalo robes and buffalo tongues significantly increased and caused approximately 200,000 bison kills annually on the plains. The 1830s to 1860s were the four decades in which most of the slaughter of bison occurred. Wagon load after wagon load of robes, tongues and, occasionally, selected cuts of bison meat, moved east. Soon, collection and shipping of bison bones to eastern cities where they ground up for use as phosphorous fertilizer or bone char became common. The arrival of the railroads further exacerbated herd conditions for the bison and by the early 1880s there were only a few free-ranging bison.

From “America West” courtesy of the National Bison Association

By the 1900’s Americans had started to realize that a natural treasure was in danger of being lost. The American Bison Society was formed and Theodore Roosevelt was its first honorary president. Roosevelt was a famous hunter but also a sportsman. He understood the difference between, say, tracking and shooting a deer you’ve followed for days and tagging some domesticated quail that were just released for your target practice. Sadly beavers had no such champion, and there was never an “American Beaver Society” formed.

Speaking of children, the children’s art tile project generated some media interest and we’re hopeful the council smiles on it tomorrow night. Stop by and lend your support, we’re scheduled early and need all the friends we can get.

Lynx Rufus

heidi08 New Species November 16, 2009

Photo: Cheryl Reynolds

Our intrepid photographer snapped this picture of a young bobcat out at Los Vaqueros reservoir yesterday. She was looking for birds and beavers but you never know what you might find. The bobcat is the most widely distributed cat in all of North America and it gets its name from the appearance of it’s “bobbed” tail. It’s a stealthy, fierce hunter of rabbits and rodents, and can adapt to the demands of just about any terrain.

Since the bobcat is our most common big cat, they are a frequent visitor in native mythology. The Shawnee tell an origin story of how the bobcat got his characteristic spots. Apparently he had successfully cornered a very intelligent rabbit, who convincingly seemed to accept his fate, congratulated bobcat on his prowess, and suggest he start the water boiling so that he could eat him more quickly after the inevitable kill. Bobcat thought this sounded like a great idea and set about laying a fire and getting it going. The wily rabbit leaped into the center of the fire and out again, spraying hot coals all over bobcats fur before making a quick getaway. Thus bobcat was forever left with telltale singe marks on his coat.

A secondary moral in the myth (from the bobcat’s point of view) is “never take advice from your dinner”. Alternatively, from the rabbit’s point of view the lesson is more simple, “Stay calm. Keep talking and give meaningless praise. The man who is proud of his cruelty will believe anything.”

Beaver Expert in Oshawa

heidi08 Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere November 15, 2009

Remember the beavers that were trapped and lied about in Oshawa Canada? The one’s that “went to live on the farm”? Well they got a pocketful of angry letters and promised they would hire a beaver management consultant next time. Only the trapping of course didn’t get ALL the beavers. There are four left. So “next time” is “this time” and Oshawa is reporting that they are hiring an expert now. No word yet on the name of said expert, but I’ve connected with the reporter and told her to get the name to me when its released so we can say whether the helper is truly helpful or just designed to give the appearance of being helpful.

“We asked the trapper to remove all the traps until further notice,” he said, adding the City is working quickly to find a wildlife expert to weigh in on the situation. “All options are open. We will be looking at ways to remove the beavers and ways we might be able to let them stay.”â?¨ Bill Slute, the City’s manager of parks services, said this isn’t the first time beaver dams have posed potential problems and that humane tactics, such as the use of “beaver bafflers,” have worked well in the past.

“A beaver baffler looks like a sewer pipe, it runs through the dam and helps manage the water level to control negative impact on roads, or drainage or nearby houses,” he said. “They have been effective for us in the past but that doesn’t mean they’re always the right solution.”â?¨ Mr. Slute hasn’t been to the Goodman Creek site and can’t say whether a beaver baffler would work at that location.

Wow. A sudden recognition that water problems can be solved by a few strategic investments. I guess this pretty much solves the problem. Any city that can install a baffler or flow device surely knows how to be solution oriented. Game over. Unless….oh….

He said sometimes population control is just as important as water level management, noting too many beavers in one area can cause significant tree damage and the number of lodges and dams can get out of hand.

Ahhhh, the second chorus of the classic beaver killing refrain. Hum this to the tune of “She’ll be comin’ round the mountain” Verse one of course is

They’ll be flooding in our city, if they stay if they stay

They’ll be flooding in our city if they stay.

They’ll be flooding in our city

And it will not be pretty

They’ll be flooding in our city if they stay

It is all of the song you usually need to hear before the residents agree to hire an executioner. Sometimes verse two is necessary

They will eat up all our Aspen if they stay if they stay

Yes they’ll eat up all our Aspen if they stay

Oh they’ll eat up all our Aspen

With their chewin’ and their graspin’

Oh they’ll eat up all our Aspen if they stay.

” (or willow, or poplar or whatever) But, in those very rare situations where the residents insist on building a flow device to take care of part I and wrapping trees to take care of part II, then you get verse three. And this threat usually frightens people into allowing them to be killed.

Oh they’ll breed like little rodents if they stay, if they stay

Yes they’ll breed like little rodents if they stay

Oh they’ll breed like rats and rabbits

And destroy us with their habits

Oh they’ll breed like little rodents if they stay

Never mind that beavers are monogamous, and that the female can get pregnant for exactly 12-24 hours once a year, or that they are territorial so that the offspring must move at least four miles away to start his own life. But the fear of beavers taking over is always a good one to toss around. Just you wait. When they find out that population explosion isn’t the great terror either, they’ll start on verse four.

Oh they’ll interfere with salmon if they stay if they stay

Yes they’ll interfere with salmon if they stay

With their building and their dammin’

They’ll block the moves of salmon

Oh they’ll interfere with salmon if they stay

Our city is working on verse fourteen…but I’m sure there’s more.

Revelations

heidi08 Educational, Environmental, Why We Care November 14, 2009

So here I am, a beaver advocate, who has resisted reading the most famous beaver story of all time; Hope Ryden’s Lily Pond. Everyone said it was sad and beautiful, and I had enough sad and beautiful right here in my own backyard thank you very much. I will say my curiosity was peaked when I learned that our German beaver friend and foreign correspondent Alex, had sent her a few of my columns. I later learned that Alex had spent a summer working with her and later Sherri Tippie in Colorado. Recently a beaver supporter sat me down with an original signed copy and insisted I read a little.

I’m so glad she did!

I am slowly savoring the earliest chapters, but I had no idea it was so science-thoughtful. It’s like reading Gorilla’s in the Mist or Never Cry Wolf. As the story opens she has obtained a permit from the Ranger to study a local colony in New York. She is waiting silently for a glimpse of a beaver, patient for hours, days, longer. Then sees a large beaver she calls the “Inspector General” who comes out at the same time every night to check the dams. At first he is the only beaver than can tolerate her approach and allow her to get closer.

It’s wonderful to watch her learn things that we have learned by accident, but I was most excited by her use of night photography. She was trying to take pictures without disruption and painstakingly used red lights and strobe lights so the beavers wouldn’t be upset by the light. (!) Then an accident happened and she turned light upon them, and lo! the beavers were unphased! and she learned that beavers have no Eye Shine!

In this moment she realized what we’ve long realized. When you shine a light in a beavers eyes there is no reflection. Nocturnal animals like raccoon, bobcat, deer and possum have light gathering crystals called tapetum lucidum. They evolved this ability to help them manage life at night. Hope wondered why beavers didn’t have it? Could it be that the species is too newly adapted to night life to have evolved the trait?

She did the work I admire and went searching through historic records. Early trappers often mention beavers out during the daytime, and even “Sunning themselves on their lodges“. She writes

If these descriptions can be believed, they raise another question: what would cause a diurnal species to become a nocturnal one? Could such a change have come about as a result of the extraordinary trappping pressure exerted on the beaver over three centuries?

Hope Ryden, The Lily Pond pg 45

She goes on to convincingly describe the horrific “beaver ethic cleansing” that was perpetrated by the Dutch, the Canadians, the French, and the Native Americans in service for all of the above. The market was already hurting because the European Beaver had been trapped to extinction in the 1600’s. So it was wonderful to find a new source for pelts and castoreum. There were no restrictions at all placed on the number of beaver. At the end of the 18th century there were so many beaver pelts on the market that 75% of the pelts taken were burned to hold the price of fur at a profitable margin. In fact, in 1811 John Jacob Astor’s fur trading post had taken all the beaver from Oregon and systematically removed every them from every last tributary in the Columbia River. By the time of the invention of the steel-jawed leg hold trap in the 1840’s, there weren’t many beaver left to trap.

In 1895, fourteen states announced they had no beavers at all. Not one. These included Massachusetts (where Beaver Solutions is located) Vermont (where Skip Lisle is located!), New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, delaware, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Florida.

One can speculate that the few animals that escaped this continent-wide decimation must have been the wariest of their kind, deviants, disinclined to build conspicuous lodges. And inded, the late ninteeth-century reports of sightings describe the beaver as a reclusive bank-dweller. One can also speculate that these survivors escaped the notice of trappers by turning night into day, for by the end of the last century, no further mention is made of beavers “sunning themselves on their lodges”.

Hope Ryden: The Lily Pond pg 48

Okay, I know I’m a huge beaver nerd, but that’s FASCINATING. It makes so much sense to think of bank lodges as an adaption to hunting, and beavers being nocturnal out of necessity and not out of genetics. The book was written in 1989 and I haven’t yet heard what beaver-ologists like Muller-Swarze or Baker think about it, but you can be I’ll be asking them.

In the meantime, you can pick up your own used copy of Lily Pond from Amazon, and follow along at home. I am sure I’ll have more revelations soon.

4 Truths in Pleasant Hill

heidi08 Beavers or Social Ambasadors, Creative Solutions November 13, 2009

Yesterday the beavers made an appearance at the Rotary Club in Pleasant Hill. Seems one of their members had attended my talk at Kiwanis and spread the word that it was worth inviting me. I was especially happy to be asked because the president elect works for the Parks & Rec department and I wanted to spread a little beaver gospel in case they get lucky some day. The talk went well. There were the usual questions about when to come see the beavers, lots of oohs and ahhs about their size, and a few recognitions from Heidi’s high school days. I was only rankled at the end when one rotarian pooh-bah asked me smartly “how many mink it took to make a coat”.His question was so startling after such warm animal images of baby mink I just shook my head.

I should have said, “Wow! Thank goodness I didn’t do a talk on toddlers!”

Moraga Rotary in February and City Council for Tile Bridge Project Wednesday. Looks like we have five volunteers from the Environmental Studies Academy. Hurray for Beavers. See you there!