Compassion Fatigue in Kansas City

“Kind of like a wood pecker, pecks, pecks, pecks. It’s like just squeaking wood all night long,” said Shannon White, a Northland homeowner forced to live with a family of beavers just beyond her back yard.

Squeaking wood has chased this otherwise obviously very tolerant family around the bend. It’s not as if any problem that has bothered them for a year and a half would be worthy of a google search for solutions or anything! Squeak, squeak, squeak! They can hardly hear themselves think! How can they possibly cope?

I can’t tell you how many times we’re down at the dam and troubled by loud squeaking noises. (As in I can’t tell you how often because it has never happened.) (Because beavers don’t MAKE squeaking noises and the wood they chew or build with doesn’t make squeaking noises either). Often we hear chewing noises. Did you mean chewing noises? Do you think they’re saying ‘squeaking’ because of the compelling rat imagery? And if beavers are rodents and rats are rodents beavers must therefore squeak? I’m especially fond of the young naturalist’s comments that they’re burdened with ALL THESE FROGS because of the lousy dam. And more frogs mean more snakes! This is a new way to look at the biodiversity burden of beaver dams! And more mosquitoes which are obviously going to cause West Nile Virus! Oh no, I hope you don’t end up getting more fish and birds drawn to your quite little drainage ditch! That would be horrible!

And to think, before all these rodents moved in it was such a nice ditch!

The Saddest Sound

heidi08 Beavers March 21, 2012

A man gets tied up to the ground

He gives the world its saddest sound

Its saddest sound

About 6 months ago I came across the soundscape work of bioacoustician Bernie Krause on this Science Friday episode. It of course made me think about beavers and wonder whether anyone had ever tried to listen for vocalizations under water. I asked around and eventually connected with Dr. Krause through Richard Dale at the Sonoma Ecology Center. He thought it was an interesting question and said he had not heard much beaver recordings even above the water, except for tail slaps and this:

I do have a rare recording of a male beaver vocalising. A colleague of mine who has been recording at a remote lake in Minnesota for many years, was visiting his favorite springtime spot when a couple of state fish and wildlife agents hiked in and dropped a couple of sticks of dynamite into the beaver dam that was the centerpiece of an entire micro ecosystem, and the cornerstone that held the infrastructure of the lake intact, killing the female and the offspring and wounding the male. That evening, our friend managed to capture the male, swimming in circles, crying out for its mate. Saddest sound I’ve ever heard from any living being, human or otherwise.

Well the internet is an amazing thing. You can be listening to a famous researcher one day and exchange emails with them the next. And it can do this – mind you, if Bernie’s description wasn’t warning enough to the compassionate souls reading this website add mine to the list. His recording is not for the soft of heart.

All this to say that tonight Dr. Bernie Krause will be presenting his awesome soundscapes in Sonoma at the Valley of the Moon lecture series.

March 21st (Wednesday) 7:00PM-8:45PM

The Great Animal Orchestra – The Sound & The Furry

Guest Speaker: Author/Naturalist/Sound Artist Bernie Krause There is a great tuning taking place – as wilderness and wildlife continue to perform their ancient songs in our increasingly noisy world. Who is listening, and what educational and entertaining delights does this ‘music of the wild’ still contain? Find out where you fit in the chorus of life, itself! Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building – 126 First St. West, Sonoma CA 95476. For additional info, email us or call 707-939-8007.

The entire evening should be fascinating! Beaver friend and bird wizard Tom Rusert does an amazing job pulling fantastic speakers together and giving them the best possible forum. If you’re free tonight you should have dinner in the wine country with friends and go listen! Hmm….what was was the topic 11 months ago? Well, that would be the Martinez Beavers!

1000 points of beaver light — well, three!

heidi08 Beavers March 20, 2012

By now readers must all know that Washington State has the smartest beaver policy in the country, and the best beaver minds hard at work. Beaver wisdom trickles down the coast and seeps inland at a snails pace. But the snail is getting faster. Here are some headlines from this morning’s news:

Leave it to beavers

NEHALEM — Anyone living near a pond, a culvert or other local bodies of water knows that gnawed trees and dammed creeks are sure signs that the elusive beaver has been busily at work. Come and learn more about these busy, misunderstood mammals Friday, March 23, at 7 p.m., in the Riverbend Room at the North County Recreation District at 36155 Ninth St.

Beavers in the park

For years, the Corvallis Parks & Recreation Department has been locked in a standoff with beavers, whose dam-building activities in Dunawi Creek periodically swamp the softball fields at Sunset Park.Now, in an effort to solve the problem without harming the industrious rodents, the department is getting ready to try a little engineering of its own.

Toothy engineers essential to ecosystem

Despite damage to trees, beavers are essential to a healthy ecosystem, Holschuh said. The work they do improves water quality, stabilizes banks and prevents erosion, and increases habitat for the benefit of other species. “Beavers knock down trees. Even if they’re not building beaver ponds, what they’re doing to the habitat benefits a lot of other animals: shore and water birds, amphibians, turtles, fish.

I would say the influence of beaver wisdom is moving at a faster pace East than South… now we see Oregon, Idaho, Colorado and Utah showing some pretty amazing beaver knowledge. Complexity appears to be sinking in at the Klamath region of our northern-most California tip, but there must be some impermeable bedrock starting at about Lake County because it never ever trickles down to us! Apparently even New Mexico is doing its fair share! So maybe California will eventually pick up beaver wisdom from both ends?

Oh and its officially spring now, so bring on the baby beavers!

Monday Cuteness I.V.

heidi08 Beavers March 20, 2012

If you’re like me you might need help facing the tiger of a week ahead that’s staring down at you. Maybe you also stayed up too late last night watching the icy splendor of beautiful and deadly killer whales tipping iceberg after iceberg until they could sneak up on an exhausted seal, and baby polar bears hungrily nursing off a famished mother who hadn’t eaten in 4 months in the Frozen Planet. Let’s face it, it’s a dog eat dog world out there – where the penguin that steals rocks for his nest usually does better than the penguin who works to gather them.

But then you see something like this and your heart is comforted. Honestly, you have to watch this. It’s well worth the commercial.

Don’t kid yourself about the ‘aw’ factor here. Baby ducks are cute, but we don’t have any shortage of them. What you’re enjoying in this clip isn’t the animals, its the humanity. When we see a banker catching baby ducks as they leap onto concrete, or a fireman lifting a bear cub to safety, or an entire town struggling to save some beavers against incredible odds our hearts are comforted that the world isn’t quite as terrible a place and that people – even some people you might never suspect – are capable of compassionate and generous things.

It’s easy to forget sometimes, so I’d keep this video handy.

Three beavers last night. One (I assume Dad but wasn’t close enough to see more than his swimming V) emerged way down by the third dam. Sometimes he moves downstream when there’s been a washout to make him feel safer when the water level drops. One big ‘sister’ came from the primary dam and made a bee-line to Reed’s bank hole at the footbridge. The secondary dam has survived very well with its clever curve, and only the gap is leaking. Reed came out in floating vigilance to eye what repairs needed to be made. Then the larger beaver emerged and they floated in slow-motion, side by side in military formation so that their size difference could be clearly registered. They poked a bit at the dam, but the water was still running too fast to start repairs.

It was lovely to see them. That and the baby ducklings should at least get me through Monday.Too dark for a photograph but here’s a simulation…