August 2011 – Page 5

heidi08 Beavers August 15, 2011

Kit-licious

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, kits, Video August 15, 2011

Lovely footage of a beaver kit surveying his territory from Aigas a family home castle turned wildlife center near Inverness in the the Scottish highlands. The programe manager who posted it, Warwick Lister-Kaye, is a member of the save the free beavers of the River Tay site on facebook. I can’t embed the clip but if you click on the footage it should take you to a place you can watch it yourself.

Aigas is one of the private estates that keeps beavers. Paul Ramsy’s house at bamff is another to the south. There are several of these large, private estates that ‘brought back beavers’ to enrich their property and appeal to tourists. The feral free beavers of the river Tay (that are ruining the pristine attention span of the Official Beaver Trial located in Knapdale to the west) squeezed out from under some of their fencing or over a rock wall to try life on their own. It’s ironic because these homes helped prepare the scottish public for acceptance of beavers, and are now indirectly being blamed for ruining the trial. Go Figure.

There are a lot of good folk involved with the effort to save the free beavers of the River Tay. If you want to follow along you can join the facebook effort here. Many of them are not just wildlife-lovers but well-educated and working in related fields – I am constantly surprised to read a bit of research-based beaver gospel coming from the congretation. They have clearly won the first round and dissuaded officials from rounding up and trapping beavers for now. It’s not clear what the future will hold.

Nearly there….

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Friends of Martinez Beavers August 14, 2011

We are heading for the launch date of Glynnis Hood’s remarkable book “The Beaver Manifesto” so I thought I’d whet your appetite a little. Remember Glynnis is the inspiring researcher who has turned down the allure of grizzlies and wolverines and devoted her research and teaching at the University of Alberta entirely to beavers and the good they do. She is so famous that I was afraid to speak to her at the beaver conference but as luck would have it I got stuck with her at the airport for an hour and a half waiting for a plane that declined to take me. Best 90 minutes I ever spent.

(From Rocky Mountain Books Forthcoming Title Description)

Beavers are the great comeback story—a keystone species that survived ice ages, major droughts, the fur trade, urbanization and near extinction. Their ability to create and maintain aquatic habitats has endeared them to conservationists, but puts the beavers at odds with urban and industrial expansion. These conflicts reflect a dichotomy within our national identity. We place environment and our concept of wilderness as a key touchstone for promotion and celebration, while devoting significant financial and personal resources to combating “the beaver problem.”

We need to rethink our approach to environmental conflict in general, and our approach to species-specific conflicts in particular. Our history often celebrates our integration of environment into our identity, but our actions often reveal an exploitation of environment and celebration of its subjugation. Why the conflict with the beaver? It is one of the few species that refuses to play by our rules and continues to modify environments to meet its own needs and the betterment of so many other species, while at the same time showing humans that complete dominion over nature is not necessarily achievable.

You can pre-orderyour copy now! I liked the intro very much but the video image is a little colorloess for my tastes. How’s this?

And on a local note, beavers get a good plug from Martinez in Idaho:

A New Breed of Stupid

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 13, 2011

Here at Worth A Dam we have seen more than our fair share of beaver stupid. We’ve seen folk insist they eat fish, harm salmon, breed like rabbits and tunnel under buildings. We’ve seen claims that they have poison tails, bite off their own testicles, and build with auto engines. I naively thought we had seen it all. Ahh no, this story from Texas takes the blue ribbon.

A beaver that city employees have dubbed “Rocky” built a dam in the middle of Edcouch’s northern drainage ditch that connects to an Hidalgo County drainage canal. The dam is preventing water from entering the larger drainage canal and if it rains, the ditch could overflow and flood a nearby school and neighborhood, Public Works Director David Alaniz said.

Alaniz does not want to kill Rocky, but he has not found a good way to relocate the rodent. Public Works employees broke up Rocky’s dam a few weeks ago, but the busy beaver built a new one within about a week, Alaniz said. Workers dismantled the dam again Thursday. They also have set a cage in the water to catch the beaver, but so far Rocky has not taken the bait.

“We put a can of beans in there, but I don’t think beans would attract him,” Alaniz said.

Beans? I’m sorry, beans? You know, the article doesn’t even say they opened the can. Stunning. I knew the story would be worth reading as soon as I saw the name of the town. Edcouch. Who names a town Edcouch? Couldn’t Mr. Alaniz ask around to his fellow public works directors in ‘Sam-chair’ and ‘Mark-table’ and figure out that beavers might not eat beans? I guess we should be grateful that it’s vegetarian.

Troy Allen, the general manager of the Delta Lake Irrigation District in Edcouch, said his crews have to clean out some areas of ditches and canals every three to five days to get rid of beaver dams. A few years ago, Delta workers used special traps and caught 10 to 15 beavers, Allen said. They killed some and relocated others.

“We don’t like killing them if we don’t have to,” Allen said, explaining that sometimes it is necessary because the beavers are difficult to trap. Delta employees also go out at night to shoot the nocturnal beavers, Allen said.

UPDATE: I thought I was being so snarky with my illustration. Turns out I was right on the money. Go watch the complete and surpassing footage by clicking on the picture:

I imagine it’s mighty hard to catch beavers if you are lacing the cage with beans. You are clearly working very hard to do absolutely nothing useful whatsoever so you can come out at night and shoot beavers. Could I possibly be forgiven for suggesting that this might be the morning staff meeting of Edcouch public works department?

I’ll track down the major players in the article, and introduce them to real solutions, but I have to admit I’m not hopeful.. In the meantime you might want to glimpse some real beavers working on the dam this morning, sin frijoles.

A Bitter Beaver Bargain

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? August 12, 2011

Three hundred dollars! The news has finally come down from Princeton about the animal control officer who shot beavers in a public park and he has been handed two potential fines of 200 and 100 respectively. If he is found guilty he will be asked to pay all or some portion of them, but considering he has been gainfully employed all this time what are the odds?

Princeton Animal Control Officer Mark Johnson has been issued two summonses for the shooting of two beavers in Pettoranello Gardens in Community Park North in May without a valid permit.The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued the summonses on July 14 and they were filed with Princeton Township Municipal Court, said Lawrence Hajna, press officer for the department. Each count carries a fine of $100 to $200 upon conviction, he said.

Apparently the case was moved into a different venue because there was conflict with the local judge. I’m going to assume they were related by birth or marriage or possibly favors. Remember these beavers have been dead for three months now, and he’s been paid at his job all this time presumably busily shooting other wildlife.

I’m curious what the two fines were for exactly. I imagine the larger one was for killing without a permit…but the smaller? hmm…firing a gun in a public park? Anyway he shot a couple beavers at the time, brought indelibly bad press to his city, destroyed habitat for countless wildlife and fractured the public trust for years to come so that sure seems like a bargain to me.

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If you’re looking for some good cheer and actual animal husbandry, try Wildife Care Association in McClellan near Sacramento who just got in a baby beaver (I’m assuming for the usual reasons).

WCA is a non-profit organization that rescues, rehabiliates, and releases local wildlife. Every year, concerned citizens and other agencies bring us ~6,500 sick, orphaned, and injured wild animals. We provides medical services and care for these animals as they recover and/or grown up. Once the animals have recovered from their injuries or illness, or have grown up and learned to hunt and fend for themselves, they are released into the wild, giving them a second chance at life.

Our own Cheryl at Bird Rescue notes that the person who posted these pictures is married to their vet at so we’ll make sure they have all the information they need to get this little fellow started out in life. Enjoy the pictures and join the facebook page if you want to follow along.