Month: September 2013

Another human being who can tell Nutria and Beaver apart!

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers September 15, 2013

Oregon State University Beaver mascot morphs into an invasive rat

When did Oregon State change its mascot?

“What happened to the Beaver?” I asked a friend whose unfortunate lot in life left him a Duck. “It’s all orange … looks like an angry mole rat.”

He smiled condescendingly. “No, Bill, not a mole rat. It’s a nutria.”

Well, of course. I’ve seen enough of them I should have recognized it immediately. Sloping forehead, beady eyes, long whiskers erupting from the nose… and teeth?! Oh my yes, long gnashing teeth (they’re even orange on the outside) ready at a moment’s notice to rip and tear… holes in the mud, roots, grass.

It’s fairly stunning that the lead researcher for Fish and Wildlife in Washington D.C., and a senior scientist at NOAA couldn’t tell a beaver from a nutria, but a disappointed sports fan can spot the difference in a furry little heartbeat,

What in the huddle happened to Benny Beaver on steroids?

Didn’t take long to figure out. We’re apparently no longer a university thanks to a Nike re-branding.

Yes, Nike.

As in Oregon/U of O; or the “University of Nike,” as Jeff Hawkins, the Ducks’ director of football operations, was quoted in The New York Tim-es in August.

Seems kind of like asking the fox to re-design the henhouse. The Ducks get a football center with a waterfall, Brazilian hardwood floors, Italian couches and Ferrari chairs.

We open the season with a nutria getting torn apart by screaming eagles.

Well, I’m not sure the earlier logo looks much more like a beaver. I do prefer it though, don’t you?

To be honest, what I truly prefer is a world where people can identify the difference between an invasive species and a keystone species.

Nutria were brought into Louisiana from Argentina to bolster the fur trade. One E.A. McIlhenny, credited with founding the popular hot Tabasco Sauce, is also often pilloried for releasing nutria into the state’s wetlands in 1938. They now number up to 10 per acre and destroy thousands of acres of wetlands annually.

Wetlands, metaphorically, that are extraordinarily valuable duck habitat.

Habitat, actually, which in Oregon owes a good bit of its existence to … (wait for it): The ever-industrious Beaver.

I’m pretty sure that must be the best sentence in a football article. Ever.

And for those of you that are new to the nutria misdiagnosis, here’s what I wrote about it an age ago.

Beaver Myths Infinitum

This is a Nutria

Update: We have done such a good job of whacking the stuffing out of this story that the picture on your right has moved from the number 1 Google image for beaver, to number 2 and now is no longer easy to download!

Experienced and google saavy beaver fans will have seen this picture everywhere on the internet(s). In fact if you do a “search” for beaver images its the number one photo that comes up. (we’re on page three of google images, but moving in the right direction.) (UPDATE: now we’re page 1).

The problem? It’s not a beaver.

For the first time today I really stared at this picture and remembered our beavers and their lovely canine noses. Even photographed upside down or dead our beavers don’t show that much nostril. Was this a Castor Fiber? (European beaver, nope they have dog noses too.) Capybara? (Nope they don’t have webbed feet) Photoshopped anomaly? No.

Its a Nutria.

Owen Brown of Beavers Wetlands & Wildlife set us straight. Nutrias were South American natives and introduced into the United states. Like the Star Thistle we thought was a great idea for growing cheap honey, or the Eucalyptus we bought from the Spanish for growing fast cheap lumber for ships, they didn’t work out so well. The animals turned out to be fairly distructive, and to breed like rabbits. Now there are nutria problems in all of these American states. Oregon fish & Wildlife goes so far as to call them a “Negative Keystone Species”.

The creation story says the Nutria (or Coypu) were introduced by the Mcillhenny Family of Tobasco Sauce fame, who wanted to start a fur trade on Avery Island. A few mistakes later the alligators are a lot happier and we are still dealing with their damage all over the United States and Europe.

Why is this a beaver myth? Because getting beaver confused with Nutria is like mixing up Goofus and Gallant and it happens all the time. People google the word beaver and find a picture of a Nutria, or the details of their constant breeding, or the fact that they harm the environment. I’ve encountered countless forums where people talk about beavers “not deserving to be protected” because they aren’t “native” and only hurt the environment. This is a case of dangerous mistaken identity. Sadly I realize even I have been fooled and a nutria picture is shamefully featured in the “muskrat” images from my second video.

The confusion doesn’t end there. How about this Peruvian Wikipedia page where every single picture of a nutria is actually a picture of an otter? (Turns out “nutria” is the spanish word for “otter”. That’s won’t cause any confusion right?) Or this picture of a man watching a “nutria” that is actually a Capybara? And the youtube abomination of “beavers holding hands” that is actually otters?

Martinez-Beaver fans all I implore you to always look carefully at the photo offered on the internet. Keep your critical thinking caps on when ever you see a beaver photo, and to paraphrase Jerry Macguire;

“Show me the tail!”

Trap-happy goodness

heidi08 Beavers elsewhere, Environmental September 14, 2013

First otter trapping season called a success

Illinois trappers took just over 2,000 river otters during the 2012-13 season, the first time trappers could legally catch them since 1929.

Based on population estimates, Illinois Department of Natural Resources furbearer biologist Bob Bluett said he had expected between 1,200 and 1,800 otters to be taken. “The difference was fur prices were up,” he said. “More people were trapping and there was more opportunity to catch otters.”

Before otter trapping became legal, beaver trappers ran the risk of accidentally catching a river otter because the animals frequent the same habitats.

“A few guys gave up on beaver trapping, afraid they were going to trap otters,” Gragert said, providing one explanation for the rise in beaver pelts sold.

Aw, how touching. I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate the cautious rebound of a struggling species than 2000 memorial coats! Never mind that you would do better using those otters as a indicator for finding which watersheds are more healthy and support the best fish. Never mind that the last time you had a trapping season for otters you stopped having otters. Trapping is a national pastime, and if destroying nature is the only reason you go outside, then by all means we need more opportunities for destroying nature!

And it’s never a pointless exploitation of nature. Just look at this article.

There’s flavorful meat in fur-bearing critters

Most hunters will skin their catch and toss the carcass away. But those who do are missing some good eating. With meat prices, especially beef, rising rapidly, it’s sure to be better to not only sell the fur but eat the animals they catch.

Muskrats are just one example. These small fur bearers have long been the bread and butter of area trappers. But once the fur is scraped and stretched, the carcass usually goes in the trash can. That is a downright shame.

Because a nice Muskrat melt will warm the cockles on a cold winter morning. Honestly, this is the part of autumn I hate. There are twenty trapping articles on the beaver news cycle this morning. I can’t wait until we get to winter and everyone gets back to complaining about flooding.

Then there’s beaver, another sought after fur bearer in Ohio. The old time mountain men, hunters and trappers like Will Sublet and Kit Carson liked beaver and ate them often.

Their favorite part was the tail, not the flat, gelatinous part, but the base which is tender red meat. I had a friend who trapped beaver and often stopped by to give me a hind quarter. The quarters in a big beaver might weigh 6 or 7 pounds. I put them in the oven covered with French onion soup to slow bake. They were lean and flavorsome.

Ugh, we need a hardy dose of this after today’s column.

None so blind as he who has both hands covering his eyes repeating “I can’t see you”.

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions September 13, 2013

You can bring a horse to water….but you can’t make that horse stop arguing that the water is unfit for equine consumption and unsafe to imbibe and we should send helicopters to fly over and see where it flows from. Just look at how much fun this suburb of Salem is having avoiding their own learning curve.

Danvers neighbors seek answers concerning beavers

For the second straight selectmen’s meeting, neighbors from Brentwood Circle, Glendale Drive and Old Maple Street complained about dealing with beavers and the rising water that results from the animals’ dams.

Diaz questioned if the town would be allowed to dredge the brook, since as it is now, the water is too shallow to put in devices known as “beaver deceivers” that allow water to flow through beaver-created dams. “We’ve had a good response (from the town),” said Diaz. “I think your hands are tied by the state. But something has to be done.”

Clark, who used to live in the neighborhood, said that a path between Glendale Drive and Endicott Park is “under about two or three feet of water. It’s not passable. It was a cow path that went to a pasture as part of Endicott Park up where the Village Green used to be. It was cut off by Route 95 but it was used as late as the 1980s.”

So wait a minute. The path is under two or three feet of water but you think the pond is too shallow for a ‘beaver deceiver’? A flow device like ours can work in as little as two feet of water. Obviously if the edges of the pond cover the path with three feet of water you have enough to install something that will make this a non-issue, and let the news cycle of Danvers get back to important stories about housing meridians or school lunches.

Mind you, I personally was written by the assistant to the town administrator and personally introduced her to Mike Callahan who wrote that he could easily come out and assess (and likely solve) their problem. At the time success seemed inevitable and she gave me the contact info for the head of public works and said he’d be handling it. But this is not my first rodeo, so I remembered at the time that our treasurer told me later that at the start of the beaver troubles she had invited the mayor and city staff to come over to watch a program on flow devices and not one person had shown up.

Because, as you know, it’s easier to be afraid than informed.

Nancy Barthelemy of 364 Maple St. said she also had a problem with the process. She said she wasn’t notified by the town before they took action against the beavers in July.

“We arrived home to find there was a line of trucks on our street and that the beavers had been killed,” said Barthelemy. “I have no problem with the dam being removed. I understand people were being flooded. I have no problem with that. I would like to see the kind of a beaver management policy so that neighbors are informed that this is going to be happening on their property and the neighbors are treated respectfully.”

She said she felt poorly treated by the workers that came to trap the beavers and remove the dams.

“I don’t mind making children homeless or ripping out wetlands, but those trappers were so rude!” Sigh. Believe me when I say Nancy, you were treated better than the beavers.

I guess I would have no friends on Maple Street at all, would I?

Too good to be true

heidi08 Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental September 12, 2013

No wonder no one believes us. The annals of research trying to show that beavers benefit ecosystems is just too good to be true. It’s like a new issue of Goofus and Gallant, or one of those religious stories about a good child who suffers brightly with a terrible disease because of her very strong faith. A mistrustful world is never going to believe that any single animal can do that many good things for a crippled planet. They just won’t. Here’s an example:

Do Beaver Dams Impede the Movement of Trout?

Ryan L. Lokteffab, Brett B. Roperab & Joseph M. Wheaton

Dams created by North American beavers Castor canadensis (hereafter, “beavers”) have numerous effects on stream habitat use by trout. Many of these changes to the stream are seen as positive, and many stream restoration projects seek either to reintroduce beavers or to mimic the habitat that they create. The extent to which beaver dams act as movement barriers to salmonids and whether successful dam passage differs among species are topics of frequent speculation and warrant further research. We investigated beaver dam passage by three trout species in two northern Utah streams.

So far, so good. An investigation is warranted. Let’s get to the bottom of this. Tell us the gory details. How do those rotten beaver dams ruin our streams?

Our results suggest that beaver dams are not acting as movement barriers for Bonneville Cutthroat Trout or Brook Trout but may be impeding the movements of invasive Brown Trout.

Did you get that? Not only are beaver dams NOT blocking passage of the good fish. They are also keeping out the bad ones. Who’s going to believe that, I ask you? Here’s another example.

These are the Ruby Mountains of Nevada, just outside Elko where beaver friend Brock Dolman just got back from a mountain trip and exploration. He found some fantastic beaver habitat, and a species of frog that is only doing well near beaver dams. This is the Columbia Spotted Frog that is listed as endangered everywhere else.

IMG_3370[2] — Columbia Spotted Frog – Photo Brock Dolman

Here’s a little something from Fish and Wildlife on the topic.

U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE SPECIES ASSESSMENT AND LISTING PRIORITY ASSIGNMENT FORM

Beaver Management

The reduction of beaver populations has been noted as an important feature in the reduction of suitable habitat for Columbia spotted frogs (Reaser 1997a, p. 39; NDOW 2006, p. 163; ODFW 2006, p. 288). Beaver are important in the creation of small pools with slow-moving water that function as habitat for frog reproduction and create wet meadows that provide foraging habitat and protective vegetation cover.

Honestly, it’s like beavers are the “Dudley Do-right” of the animal kingdom, another famous Canadian who was a hero of unbelievable proportions that gets everything right and makes everything better without important flaws to endear them to us. Beavers are superman without kryptonite – Rooster Cogburn without the eye patch – or in the language of modern fiction, an annoying Mary Sue character without an absent parent. They do EVERYTHING right. Of course no one can believe in them.

Except us.

There were lots of fans and believers on the bridge last night, to catch the end of summer beaver show. Three kits and JR. VERY high tide. In fact, don’t ask how high it was. Ask how LOW the dam was in comparison.

The dam was so low that both a kit and the yearling SWAM through it! Guess mom has some repairs to do this morning. Love the yearling’s little shake at the beginning.

Chumps with Pumps

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, featured September 11, 2013

Beaver being blamed for water crisis in Depoe Bay

A pump station at Rocky Creek that supplies Depoe Bay with most of its raw water was disabled after a beaver destroyed a plywood dam at the site, wreaking havoc with the pump’s intake. Water from the pond is pumped about a mile north to the city’s reservoir, which fell three feet after the pump’s failure.

Sure. That seems likely. Because you know how beavers like to destroy plywood and wreak havoc with pumps. I mean its not like it could possibly be the responsibility of the fine employees at Depoe bay who let the water fall by 36 inches before anyone bothered to check what was causing it. I’m sure there aren’t gauges or sensors or anything. So how could they possibly know?

Speaking of wild decisions, Martinez beavers were invited to the zoo yesterday. The Oakland Zoo does a brown bag lunch series for the keepers and members with animal speakers from around the community. Guess who will be on the venue for November?