Month: December 2016

Mysterious Beaver Ways of Yore

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Creative Solutions, Environmental, featured, History December 11, 2016

Our retired librarian friend from Georgia, Bob Kobres, is always finding us interesting tidbits. Whether it’s hot off the presses new beaver research in phys.org or some historical gem that the world has long overlooked. This comes from a letter to the editor of Popular Science magazine in 1884. And it’s a whopper.

The author, one Samuel Aughey of Lincoln Nebraska, is responding to the May issue in which Dr. Stockwell wrote about Henry Morgan’s seminal book, “The beaver and his works“. He begins much in a familiar manner, saying it was a fun read but just because some researchers never saw something doesn’t mean it never occurs.

Rickipedia used to quote, “Absence of Evidence, isn’t evidence of absence“.

And then goes on to tackle the thorny debate about whether beavers use their tails in construction. Dr. Stockwell apparently said “No way”, but Samuel had other ideas.

Okay, did you get that? Samuel is minding his own business when he suddenly sees a group of beavers work together to move a trunk – some pulling some pushing. Already I’m intrigued because we never really saw beavers working together on a single log.

So there’s a little rut in the hill and the beavers can’t get the log over it, no matter how many times they try. Time for a new strategy.

Okay! Beavers in a huddle form two teams, the pull team and the push team! The pull team LAID THEIR TAILS OUT FLAT and the log was rolled onto them. Then they hauled that log forward hoisted, as it were, by their own petards.

Oompf! After that big log gets moved the pull team examines their tails to make sure they weren’t injured in the line of duty. Nope, all fine here.

Samuel ends with “Just because they didn’t go to your fancy schools doesn’t mean what they saw didn’t really happen”. And by the way who is this wacky Samuel Aughey of the obvious “tinfoil hat” beaver brigade?

Samuel Aughey Jr. was a minister and naturalist/ geologist in Nebraska and Wyoming from 1864 until 1886. He graduated from Pennsylvania College (now Gettysburg College) in 1856 and then attended seminary there. Aughey came to Dakota City, Nebraska, in 1864 as a “home missionary” for the Lutheran Church. After resigning this position in 1867, he worked for the Dakota County government from 1866 until 1869 as superintendent of public instruction and county surveyor. He was named the first professor of natural science at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln in 1871.

Well okay, professor of natural science, superintendent of schools and county surveyor. But still we’re talking Nebraska and anyone that could read would be called a scholar there, right? Here’s a partial list of is publications:

Which all goes to leave me scratching my head in wonderment. Surely when there were millions more beavers they might have worked together differently. But did they use their tails differently? Samuel thinks that some beavers have better ideas than others. Not just any beaver could do it. Go read the whole letter to the editor here and puzzle for yourself if it could possibly be true.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Hamlet, Act I: Scene 5

This just in: beavers build dams!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and trout, Environmental December 10, 2016

For those of us who have done our homework Don Maclean’s column is kind of a non-story. But recognizing that this columnist is writing from Nova Scotia makes us pretty excited. We’re grading on a curve and that side of Canada is notoriously slow to acknowledge beaver benefits. Nearby PEI once argued adamantly with Rickipedia that beavers weren’t even native. So, given that background, this is a pretty exciting article.

COLUMN: Beaver dams have effect on trout location

I recently spent some time looking at a beaver dam on a small stream near my house.

While beavers often do some damage with their dams they also play an important role in maintaining healthy aquatic ecosystems. Most people are familiar with beavers, and beaver dams. They are often a nuisance when they dam bridges and culverts and many anglers feel their dams also serve as a barrier to fish migration in small streams. This may be the case during low flows but usually in the fall, when fish are moving upstream to spawn, water flows are higher and most fish manage to get over or through them.

Beaver dams actually benefit the environment by stabilizing stream flows, reducing silt and providing habitat for fish and other wildlife.

Beavers build dams to provide more water for them to build their houses and to store feed for the winter. I find beaver dams very interesting as they use local materials to build structures which are incredibly effective at holding water.

Ponds created by the dams are often deep. This depth provides protection for fish as well as a refuge from warm stream temperatures. In my experience many of these ponds also tend to have good populations of aquatic insects and leeches, all great sources of food for fish.

Yes, beaver dams have increased invertebrates to feed fish. And the water is deeper so it doesn’t freeze solid. This article sounds like something written by a man surrounded by nonbelievers and should actually be titled “No wait, hear me out!” Obviously Nova Scotia is thick with fishermen and bureaucrats who think beaver dams are bad for fish (even though we and NOAA know better). I can practically see him with his hands raised to protect his head from all the tomatoes getting thrown. He ends with a hurried reference to Giardiasis just to show he is still one of the boys.

We understand, Don. It is hard to be the first one in the cave who sees the benefits of fire. But someday they’ll all want it. Trust me.

Breaking the ice with Beavers

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and climate change, Beavers and Ice, Beavers and water, Creative Solutions, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? December 9, 2016

Yesterday I asked how beavers break the ice – using their heads, backs or tails? I needn’t have wondered. When anyone has any question about beavers at all they only need to do one thing. Ask Bob Arnebeck because he’s seen it before and has it on film. I love this video more than Christmas itself. Turn the sound UP so you can hear the ice cracking in the beginning.

Isn’t that wonderful? Not only does the beaver break the ice and gain exit, he uses all three methods in a row! Because, why limit yourself?

I had always thought about the importance of breaking OUT of the ice so you can forage for food when your cache gets low, but this video made me think of the other, more pressing concern. Sometimes in these temperatures the water is quick to refreeze. That means it can be a struggle for the beaver to get back IN! A beaver who’s frozen out has no warm lodge, no family members to cuddle with and can’t reach his food cache. There must be some beavers who can’t get back in and simply die of exposure or predation eventually.

Not this beaver. The video’s a little blurry but watch how he deals with that big sheet of ice that covers his exit hole.

If I haven’t told you often enough, I LOVE BEAVERS. They are SO COOL! Thank you Bob!

Another fine beaver report from Eastern Massachusetts – where we need beaver wisdom most! This from Langsford Pond in Glouster, lovingly recorded and described by Kim Smith on the award winning blog, Good Morning Glouster.

NEW SHORT: HELLO HUNGRY BEAVER!

Beaver Pond, also known as Langsford Pond, is located on the outskirts of Cape Ann’s Dogtown. Exquisitely beautiful and peaceful, the pond is teeming with life, habitat largely created by the relatively new presence of the North American Beaver (Castor canadensis).

Beavers are ecosystem engineers and the ponds they create become wildlife magnets. Think about just this one example of the ecology of a beaver pond: woodpeckers make holes in the dead trees engineered by Beaver activity, Wood Ducks nest in the holes created by the woodpeckers, and raptors hunt the smaller birds.

More examples of how Beavers benefit other species of wildlife include favored nesting sites of both the Great Blue Herons and Osprey are the dead treetops of older trees in beaver swamps. Local species of turtles, the Snapping Turtle and the Eastern Painted Turtle, benefit from abundant vegetation created by beaver tree felling, which causes the forest to regenerate. Snapping and Eastern Painted Turtles prefer standing and slow moving water and hibernate under logs and lodges of Beavers. Painted Turtles also use floating logs to bask upon.

Langsford pond is all the way at the ocean end of the state – the side that isn’t usually too patient with beavers. The pond is near the Atlantic 150 miles from Skip Lisle or Mike Callahan and 300 miles from Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife. Wherever she gleaned her beaver information it probably wasn’t from any of them, but its refreshingly accurate nonetheless!

Thanks Kim, for a beautiful look at a baystate beaver pond!

Beaver Orange is the New Black

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? December 8, 2016

Beaver appears to be causing flooding to land on, near prison

A beaver appears to be causing some flooding issues to land on and near the Hutchinson Correctional Facility, but it looks like there isn’t much anyone can do about it.

Jeff Nichols, City of Hutchinson public works maintenance/flood control superintendent, said a beaver dam has caused water to back up along the Cow Creek in this area in years past and it wouldn’t be atypical for it to happen again.

In the past couple of days the high water has been on the west and east side of K-61 between Avenue G and Blanchard.

Nichols said the creek crosses multiple private properties and it is the owners’ responsibility to maintain it – including beaver dams.

Craig Curtis, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism regional wildlife supervisor, said based on Kansas law you can get rid of the beaver, but you legally can’t get rid of the dam.

Curtis said the landowner can reach out to the department for information on a water level control device that can be put inside the dam to keep the water an at acceptable level.

Hutchinson correctional facility is in Kansas, where you are apparently allowed to kill beavers as long as you don’t destroy dams. Not sure about the logic in that – I’m sure it’s flood related but I would think that if beavers aren’t around anymore to tend the dam it will eventually break and cause flooding anyway?

I’m pleased at least to see that Kansas knows about flow devices. What do you want to bet that paper would describe the expensive and unreliable Clemson and not Mike or Skip’s Designs?

A pleasant winter trip to the pond from Larry Weber of Minnesota makes me wish that we had snow. Sure feels cold enough anyway.

Northland Nature: A recent visit to a beaver pond reveals.

With all these changes — cold, snow and the beginning of the freeze up — it was time to visit to a beaver pond.

snowbeaver — John Warner photograph, Montana

Each November, I like to wander through the woods and adjacent field to a favorite beaver pond. This year, I was able to observe a few others as well. I like to see if the beavers are still present and how well prepared they are for the coming winter season. Three beaver lodges that I went to in past weeks revealed newly cut branches on the top with saplings in the nearby water to serve as food. None were large, but each showed activity. Often in the previous weeks of AutWin, I was able to watch the beavers as they swam by.

As I went towards the large beaver pond, I walked in the new snow cover. AutWin may be over, but now the next chapter in the seasonal changes begins. Though I cannot see many of the low plants that I saw in the woods last week, I could see the animal tracks that tell of their activity during these recent days and nights. Even before I left the yard, I found footprints of deer, squirrel, deer mice and shrew. Within the woods, I noted where a ruffed grouse and fox have passed and a runway of snowshoe hare. Out in the field, I found the tunnel openings in the snow made from underneath by the local field mice. These vole holes are always very common early in the snow season. Arriving at the beaver pond, I saw a few coyotes had left their tracks as they moved along the shore. A more adventurous raccoon tried walking on the new slushy ice. And out in the center of the pond, I saw what I came here to observe: the beaver lodge.

The structure is large and solid. Looking it over, I saw the aquatic dwelling site has many recent cut branches on it; the beavers have worked much in previous weeks to reinforce the strength of their home. Nearby in the water are many branches and twigs sticking up above ner photogfraph, Montanathe pond’s surface. This large gathering of woody material tells of a well-stocked cache of food that allows the beavers to have meals all winter. Though the cache is wet and cold, it does give enough substance and nutrition for these large water rodents. The entire pond was covered with ice, except for a small open space near the lodge. Here the beavers are able exit from their unique house if they desire to do so. (I have previously found their tracks on the nearby shore, but not this time.)

From the size of the lodge and cache, it looks like a whole family will be wintering here. I have visited this beaver pond every November for years and nearly always I find what I saw that day. They appear to be doing fine. It was a good walk and visit to the beaver pond and I wish them well for the coming winter.

I love to think about beavers planning ahead for the snow. It never ceases to amaze me that they make a food cache and share with family members. My dream is to someday see the cracks they make in the ice before it freezes up so they can have access as long as possible. I wish I could see how they do it, Do you think they use their heads or strong backs? Beavers in snow work so much harder than ours. But it never troubles them. It’s not like you ever see a mass migration of beaver retirees moving to the warmer temperatures so they can take it easy in their golden years.

Of course this beautiful glimpse of beaver under the ice is from our good friend Bob Arnebeck. Thanks Bob.

Czechmate for beavers

heidi08 Who's blaming beavers now? December 7, 2016

The poor beleaguered Czechs. They are being invaded by beavers. Or at least think they are. Given this photo I’m not so sure.

The article mentions that wrapping trees with wire or painting is a good way to protect them. And failing that suggests keeping a dog in the hard or gluing dogfur to the tree trunk will help. (Dogfur?) But I suppose children need crafts with the winter holidays coming up. (And it sure looks like someone glued dogfur to that photo.)

Which, I’m sure you know, is a nutria and not a beaver.

The most severe damage is caused by the dams that these rodents build because they raise water level and may inundate the surroundings. Besides, beavers damage levees in ponds. This is also why steel nets have been installed on the reconstructed ones.

On the other hand, some dams built by beavers help during floods as they slow down the water flow during snows thawing and torrential rains, MfD writes.

Wow, they even took time to mention beaver dams do some good. I guess the takeaway from this article is that the Czech republic, where slightly more than 10,000,000 people earn salaries of just over 1000 a year, uses culvert protection and wraps trees to prevent beaver damage which makes them much, much smarter than us.

Think about that while you listen to one of my favorite pieces of music of all time.