The Largest Living Creature

heidi08 New Species July 26, 2010

Blue Whales are the largest living animal on earth – not just currently, but EVER in the history of the world. They are bigger than elephants, than mastadons. bigger than brontosaurus. The rolling back of a blue whale emerges from the water like a new penisula. They spout heights of 30 feet. If they lived on land their massive weight would be impossible to bear, but their unmatched bulk is maintained with the smallest of food.

This food is abundant right now in Monterey Bay, and blue whales are being seen every day, usually in groups. Krill are considered (brace yourselves) a Keystone Species because they are so essential to the diet of so many creatures, and because they themselves feed on the smallest plankton, seamlessly tying our oceans together. (Clearly our keystone species is way better, because who would ever have a krill festival?) (Ahem, blue whales! that’s who!) The bloom of krill is also bringing humpback, dolphin, squid, even birds. This excellent graphic is from the Sacramento Bee which had an outstanding article this weekend about the blue whale extravaganza going on right now.

I went searching for some youtube glimpses of these remarkable animals. Most are filled with the kind of gasping human noises that one associates with the sighting of rare wildlife. Whale watching boats are frantically adding tours to make space for more people to see them. People are flocking in droves to experience the splendor. I particularly liked the stunned silence of this one: a zodiak driver alone who was clearly not expecting company. Listen all the way until the fluke emerges. (Youtube is being wonky today, but keep trying, honest).

Because of their massive size Blue Whales were too big to be hurt by the whaling industry until relatively late. Sail boats and harpoons were no match for them. There were once 350,000 thought to roam every ocean in the world. In the late 1800’s, a clever Norwegian came up with the exploding harpoon gun, and the macabrely pragmatic idea of filling the bodies of dead large whales with air so they wouldn’t sink the boat. Blue Whales didn’t become the target of choice until 1900, but in a trim 30 years 99% of their population was destroyed. Now the numbers hover around 8000-10,000.

The good news is that the killing stopped, and these remarkable animals seem to be doing okay. If you have a chance to sneak away to Monterey this week you might want to go see for yourself.

Advocacy

heidi08 Uncategorized July 25, 2010

Truth is the first casualty

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 10, 2010

Rumor is that the losing council members of Oshawa’s “don’t-kill-the-beavers” vote are directing staff to prepare a cost statement that will prove that saving those dam beavers is too expensive. There has been a request for us to tell them what it really costs and prepare a materials list. I offered my best initial advice, suggested that they add up all the money spent on trapping for contrast, but then thought better of my own efforts.

Bemoaning Beaver Expenses is never about what’s true.

I can remember the wasted effort to control the city’s record of the expenses for our beavers: OT staff hours for uselessly taking down the dam, 5000 for 11 police officers at the November meeting to control a potentially rowdy public, money spent for them to “research” non-solutions and don’t forget the vast sums spent on consultants who said the beavers were a liability; a grand total of 75,000 dollars delivered by staff to the subcommittee. Not to mention the half a million spent on pointless sheet pile a year later. The city was hoping that the massive dollar sign would convince martinez that the beavers weren’t worth it. It worked for a few citizens, but mostly didn’t matter.

(People are used to cities wasting money.)

In the end, (and I can feel my IQ dropping as I saw this…) it is less about what’s true and more about what’s popular. This is the great life lesson I learned from beavers. I told our Oshawa friends to do some basic work preparing a materials list but to stay focused on motivating public opinion. Making the beavers more friends was going to do more to save them than struggling to prove they will be cheap.

Beaver in Red Deer Dog Park found Shot

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Beavers or Social Ambasadors, City Reports, Who's Killing Beavers Now? September 10, 2010

This amazing photograph is of Doris Forbes and her beloved beaver, Mickey, the official Mascot of the city I wrote about last week where a beaver had attacked several dogs at a local dog park. In 1939 the kit was found mauled by dogs and unable to use his back legs, and cared for by the Forbes. (Mrs. Forbes was a nurse.) He recovered from his injuries and lived in their home until he got too big and then had a special place built for him in the garage. As many as 200 letters arrived a day for Mickey and his keeper, Doris. Sometimes as many as 50 would stop by to see the beaver, who was especially attached to the little girl.

Mickey lived for 9 years as the beloved pet of the Forbes and became the official Mascot of Red Deer. He died peacefully in his sleep and he and Doris became the subject of a bronze statue in town. Footage of him appeared in hollywood films, his image sparked the design for a beaver costume, and his story was told by Kerry Wood in a novel called “Mickey the beaver and other stories”. In his peaceful, well-loved life he taught people about beavers and the good that they can do. And his memory certainly shaped the mercy that dog owners were able to show in saying the beavers shouldn’t be killed.

Except one was.

Someone shot one of the Red Deer beavers. The body of a 3-4 year old beaver was found Monday by a canoer, and the town is reeling from the shock that someone would bring a weapon into a city park and take matters into their own hands. This is the kind of shocking death that breaks through the barriers if a woman who reads about 10 beaver killings a week. We were so close. The city had listened to options, the residents had defended the beavers, 4 property owners offered relocation, and the city was starting to realize that it may not even be necessary with a little intelligent fencing.

And one of the beavers was shot.

Again I ask, was it mom? Was it dad? Was it the ‘guilty beaver’? Will there be more? Will the person be back tonight or tomorrow to take out the rest of the colony?

The town of Red Deer has been shaped for 70 years by stories of beavers. With the massive import of the fur trade it is safe to say that beavers are the bookends holding together its entire existence. It had better do right by them.

Oshawa Shines

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's Killing Beavers Now? November 9, 2010

So the citizens of Oshawa marched into the council meeting last night with signs and banners and stuffed beavers and demanded to keep their aquatic rodents. The experts did what experts do and defended their earlier position and said things like “beaver deceivers don’t work” and that doing nothing was not an option and that lives and property could be lost. (Martinez residents can well imagine because we were there, oh lo those many years ago, and we know EXACTLY how everyone pontificated.) But in the end the council did the right thing. By a bat-squeak of a majority they voted 5-4 to not kill the animals and look for other solutions. Hooray for our team! In the head rush of victory last night Marissa posted about wanting to do a beaver festival, so I would say the beavers of Oshawa have done their “community changing” work handily.

Speaking of our own community, Worth A Dam approached the city council regarding a memorial for mom beaver. Artist Paul Craig did some lovely metal silhouettes of mom and three kits (based on cheryl’s photos and adapted by our graphic artist volunteer, libby) which we would like to hang in memoriam. We had talked about three possible locations because we were worried they might not go for the sheetpile idea. Surprisingly, last night every member of the council said they thought the sheetpile was a lovely idea. They again thanked Worth A Dam for the work. There was smiling as the metal beavers were displayed for view and I was directed to talk to staff about getting them hung.

Go figure!

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, the vet from Lindsay Wildlife came down to meet the beavers last night and got the full show. One little fellow was on the “wrong side” of the dam at 7:30 and wasn’t seen going over during the past hour but might have sneaked by when we were talking to the council. He seemed to be trying to get back over and was blocked by all these sticks and obstacles. We were worried he had forgotten where the gap was, and just about ready to sneak over and line the path with apple peels when he decided to stop fooling around and headed straight for the gap. He obviously knew where it was the whole time, he was just trying to “discover” a new way.

Whew!

So he trotted gamely over and swam about, grabbing some branches. 45 minutes later a second kkit came over from the wrong side!!! Clearly these are BEAVERS WITHOUT BORDERS any more. They go where they please, and we had better go whereever they please too if we’re going to see them!