Beavers-to-go

And they’re beavers. 14 Eurasian beavers arrived in Ulaanbaatar from Bavaria, Germany this week.Known as ecosystem engineers, the hard-working beavers build dams that have positive effects on the ecology.

Get it? German engineers arriving – and they’re beavers! HA HA! That’s right. Some countries go thousands of miles to import beavers and some countries [namely ours] just kill them wherever they turn up. Looks like Ulaanbaatar (in Mongolia between Russia and china) got 7 pairs of beavers delivered to help their Tuul river. While the beavers have had an unhappy day (or more) in a box and face an uncertain future, they are at the moment prompting lots of media to write that BEAVERS HELP RIVERS over and over again, which makes a nice change. Oh and did you notice that those are wooden boxes? You do know that beavers CHEW through wood right?

With the purpose of raising water levels, 14 beavers were brought to Ulaanbaatar on Monday at 7am.Beavers improve and take care of their habitats, by building dams that raises the water level, and consequently dampen the soil, which in turn makes it more fertile and lively. Germany’s Bavaria province has given the beavers free of charge, because they will be used to restore the environment. The beavers flew for 8 hours from Germany to Mongolia.

Free of charge! (As in ‘take my beavers, please!) Honestly there is such fanfare being raised for these beavers that you’d think they were ecosystem engineers! Oh, that’s right, they ARE!

Further information was given by the Head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

-Beavers are undomesticated animals, how will the long flight affect the beavers? Has a beaver ever been transported by plane?

Okay, funny historical story. beavers relocated by plane in America in 1940’s and also in wooden boxes. the boxes were intended to be ‘thrown’ onto the water below, thinking they’d float long enough for the beavers to chew their way through. Tiny glitch. The beavers didn’t wait until they were thrown to chew through the boxes and scared the snot outta the pilot when they started crawling loose around the plane!

-Since they are wild animals, they would have obviously been shocked. The Bavaria province has exported many beavers to other countries, but they only used air travel when they transporter beavers to Scotland.

-The Beaver Centre will open in May, where will they reside until then?

-They will be staying in the Khuushiin am until the Tuul River Khar Usan Tokhoi centre is ready in May.

-When will they be released into the wild?

-First we will breed them using the Russian method. If we release them straight away they will not yield any results. Taking care of the beavers will require a long time, effort and funding, that’s why they will be released into the wild in several stages. This might even start a year from now. We will have to see the results of the breeding and release them a few at a time.

The Russian method? The RUSSIAN METHOD? Is that like the missionary position? What on earth is the Russian method for breeding beavers? Plentiful Vodka, long lines and random food shortages?

-What will happen after they are successfully introduced to the wild?

-If they raise the water level, we will take measures to sustain it.

This page must be translated, because I’m incapable of reading this dialogue without hearing a very thick Stalinist accent in my mind.

-How will you be feeding them? What do they eat?

-They usually eat plants, we have already prepared the food they will eat. Biologists say that they can eat most vegetables, fruits and plants. Mature beavers are between 74-80cm, weigh from 16-20kg and they are the biggest rodents. They live in colonies, which is why they were sent in pairs from Germany. All examinations and documents necessary for their transport were taken care of on the German end, but because of unresolved issues on the part of the Mongolian team, the beavers were held at the airport for a day, and were nearly sent back. Though they are gifts from Germany, it is also right that their entree be congruent with Mongolia’s laws and customs.

”They will be given a year’s time to adapt to the new climate, and their offspring will be relocated to the main stream of the Tuul and Terel rivers. This is a long term project, so we will not see an immediate rise in the water levels of the rivers. There are also beavers coming from Siberia. Since they are used to living in cold climates, they will be placed at the Tuul River right away. Their habitats will be given special protection against such animals as dogs; we even anticipate that people will have to be restricted in their given areas.”

Well, good luck with that. As grim as I feel these beavers chances are, it can’t be any worse than the fate of most beavers in America. We wish you every success.

“thus we pray that the beaver solution will yield results.”

Amen.

So my computer has been taken away for repairs, I’m losing my mind with this tiny laptop and I have a cough, Are those reasons enough to be lazy? I hope so because our new otter friends asked me to write a post about beavers and otters for their shiny new website and I thought I’d repost it here. Birds with stones, right? Make sure you go look at their website, because it seems more respectable over there. (After 5 years posting here has become a lot like singing in the shower.)

V0021198 Above, an otter eating a fish; below, a beaver. Woodcut afte — Konrad Gesner Woodcutting: 1558

“The thing is – a landscape that suits beavers becomes one that suits otter so the two, while not friends, are almost inseparable.”

Do you remember as a child that kid on the block that always went to your school, shopped with her mom at the same store, and hung around where you wanted to play but was never exactly a ‘friend’? Maybe she was too rude or too bossy or too uncool to actually play with, but she was never very far away. In fact, as you grew up you might or have gotten braces from the same dentist, worked in the same factory or married cousins from the same family. Regardless of your particular likes and dislikes, your fate seemed tangled up with hers: linked forever by circumstances that played a more essential role in both your developments than character.

This is the fate of the otter and the beaver.

As the founder of Worth A Dam and an early advocate for the famous Martinez Beavers, I ended up knowing a lot more about both species than I ever planned. This 16th century portrayal makes me laugh and conveys something of the attitudes both creatures have conjured over the centuries. Neighbors in every way but neighborly, beaver and otters couldn’t be much more different. Otters are thrill seeking opportunistic fish eaters that troll vast territories for their daily meal. Beavers are family oriented herbivores that stay in one place and sculpt the same landscape over and over again until it matches their needs.

The thing is – a landscape that suits beavers becomes one that suits otter so the two, while not friends, are almost inseparable.

img_0663_0 — 2010 Kit: Photo Cheryl Reynolds

This is true even though otter [carnivores] are considered a threat to very young beaver kits. While there is controversy among researchers as to whether otters actually predate beaver when they can get them, what I’ve seen from our local beavers seems to indicate that their furry minds at least are made up. Although their arrival is ignored most of the year, each May when otters that visit the beaver pond they are greeted with a series of very loud tail slaps until they saunter nonchantly away. I first saw this on an early visit to the beavers in 2007 when I discovered a very large otter sitting atop the beaver lodge. It was so early in the story that at the time I admittedly remember saying in confusion, ‘That’s not a beaver, right?”

The father beaver soon chased that otter away and sent the waters echoing with a total of nineteen memorable tail slaps! Since that time I have never observed more than one or two at a time and they seem most likely to occur in the spring. We know that otters like to rest and den in abandoned beaver lodges and on two separate occasions I saw eager otters try to enter the beaver lodge only to be roundly chased out by mom beaver or one of the yearlings.

746px-River_otter_on_flow_device_Martinez,_CA_by_Lory_Bruno_courtesy_Worth_a_Dam_Feb_14,_2010 — Otter on flow device: Lory & Ron Bruno

One young otter in 2010 was renowned for using the pipe of the flow device as a kind of “waterslide” to climb through to the beaver pond. He could be heard noisily banging his way through the PVC and would emerge on the other side out of the filter, slip through the protective fencing and begin devouring available fish. I like to say that he eventually ate so many fish that he stopped fitting IN the pipe and had to cross over the dam like everyone else. Whatever the reason, he eventually stopped coming.

The fact remains: beaver dams create ideal conditions that improve fish population density and diversity. In fact, in Oregon and Washington beaver ponds on public lands are protected as essential fish habitat and NOAA has been active in promoting this. Not waiting for California to get on board otters are already drawn to our beaver ponds where they are sometimes unwelcome and mostly ignored. As an avid canoe-er, I am used to finding river otter along the Albion, Navarro or Russian rivers, but I never understood how urban their population could be until I started watching beavers. It has become a predictable surprise to be looking downstream for the familiar “V” of the low swimming beaver and see one or two heads pop up suddenly out of the water as if they were standing on ladders below its surface. Otter visitors! Enjoyed around town for a couple hours or a couple days before leaving as suddenly as they arrived.

This summer’s Beaver Festival will celebrate the role of beavers and creeks with a fitting display from the River Otter Ecology Project. Otter peeps should join us on August 4th from 11-4. I hope we will see you all there to learn your stories of these two remarkable species!

Thanks Paula and Megan! I’m sure if we can help turn otter supporters into beaver believers we can change the world. Make sure you check out their whole site and their citizen science proposal. They are moving by leaps and bounds and just did an abc interview last week! Write down all your otter questions and bring them to the beaver festival, okay?

Oh and word this a.m. from our friends in El Dorado Hills Four Seasons. Three beavers seen at once last night and some very audible noises. I’m guessing they have babies!

Even better news tonight. We went out about 7:50 to see if we could see any beaver activity on our pond. Just like clockwork, out they came swimming along majestically! We saw three for sure! It was wonderful to see them. I don’t know how they’re avoiding the traps, but so far they have. And whatever sound I’m hearing is coming from them. They swam out from the exact spot I hear the sounds coming from. SP

whatever sound I’m hearing is coming from them. They swam out from the exact spot I hear the sounds coming from. SP