BEAVERS AND WORLD WETLANDS DAY

heidi08 Beavers and Wetlands February 3, 2019

Here’s what we know about the the beaver patient 144 at lindsey. She’s been moved to a larger enclosure but seems hesitant in her movements and isn’t using the kiddie pool. She tested positive for roundworm parasite and they have her on antibiotics. She’s eating normally and their scan showed no pregnancy.

I will chat more with the attendant tech today. I’m thinking that if it was our mother beaver she’d be pregnant by now, so that’s useful info anyway. We will chat more about beavers showing neurological signs today.

Appropriately, yesterday was world wetlands day, which means everybody should be talking about beavers. Obviously some people already are.

VIDEO: We must save our wetlands to save humanity, B.C. activist says

To save ourselves, we need to save our wetlands, environmental activist Ted Lightfoot believes.

“Save the wetlands, you save the salmon, you save the beavers, you save the orcas, you save humanity,” Lightfoot said.

Lightfoot spoke Saturday in Langley at the unveiling of a weatherproof mural of an orca at the Kwantlen First Nation cultural centre for World Wetlands Day.

Wow! Hi Ted! i believe we’ve met before but its great to see you again! I actually like how you clearly lay out the link between orcas and beavers. Just about everyone (except seals) loves orcas.

Wetlands buffer coastlines from extreme weather, while coastal wetlands such as salt marshes, mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs act like shock absorbers to reduce the intensity of waves, storm surges, and tsunamis.

Inland wetlands such as flood plains, rivers, lakes and swamps “function like sponges, absorbing and storing excess rainfall and reducing flood surges,” a ramsar.org online message states.

“Wetlands are the most effective carbon sinks on Earth.”

And we all know who makes wetlands right? i like the way this colorful tour is going. The next time Ted makes an orca for wetlands day he needs to have about thirty 6 year- olds help with the artwork and a high school science class do the presentation. He’ll get twice the media coverage and be teaching the next generations to boot.

Am I right?

“Individuals, communities and governments must work together to protect these amazing ecosystems, which help us prepare for, cope with and bounce back from the impacts of climate change.”

Which reminds me. i’ve been talking with Dan Logan of NOAA fisheries about incorporating more salmon teaching into the beaver festival and we think the parade is a great way to do that. He mentioned design he’d seen in the Willitsfest – beautiful and way above our pay grade. But it got me thinking.

What if we had a banner or something that kids could draw beavers and salmon on – with cute and easy language about how they get along. We could have our hundreds of kids paint it at earthday and then let kids march with it in the beaver festival. It can start the conversation and get folks thinking.

Something like this?

YOU OUGHTA BE IN PICTURES

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation February 2, 2019

Well, well, well.

Yesterday was pretty exciting. The first thing we learned was that the beaver at Lindsey was 13 Kilograms not pounds, which meant it was an adult or sub adult. I also learned that it had a chipped tooth and was showing some neurological signs as well.

Cheryl found out from her volunteer that they needed willow and I called Jean who was happy to help. Since she couldn’t find much willow because its not leafing out yet she brought fennel, which is very sweet and a reminder of the kindness she paid to mom beaver over the years.

They think the beaver is a female so the question remains whether its our mom (who would have had to have lost a lot of weight), or our 2 year old, or a stranger trying to move into the creek. i wonder if there’s a way to scan for pregnancy, because that would be helpful clue. Of course it matters because of where the beaver is ultimately released.

As a golden reminder to me to be careful what i write every morning, the helpful nice woman who answered my call yesterday later looked up the website and posted a comment last night.

Hi Heidi – I took your Lindsay call on Thursday and I confess to being thrilled to learn it was *the* Heidi Perryman, (yeah, a little star struck having just read the book ), but solicitous comes naturally to me; especially at the hotline/accession desk. That’s where I get to meet or talk to wonderful people (like you!) who care so much – on both sides of the desk.

Thanks for all you have done and continue to do for beavers.

Wow! Thanks Paula! It’s thrilling to think anyone reads this at all!

Now the results of the ‘peoples choice’ wildlife photo were posted yesterday in the UK and guess what who’s a finalist?

Wildlife Photographer of the Year: a baby beaver given a fighting chance

This male beaver was found orphaned on a riverbank near a campsite – he was a just baby (called a kit) and weighed about a kilogramme.

Photographer Suzi Eszterhas’s adorable image of this little creature clutching a leaf is one of 25 shortlisted for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year LUMIX People’s Choice Award.

Suzi’s subjects are at the heart of her photography, a key component to her storytelling being what we perceive as innate innocence.

‘We grow up being taught to be strong and not to show weakness and are ashamed if we do,’ says Suzi, ‘but I think we yearn for vulnerability and are attracted to images that show vulnerability in its most beautiful innocent form – like baby animals.

It’s wonderful to see a baby beaver on the shortlist, but even more fun me is that this photo was taken during the summer of 2015 during the photo shoot of our beavers for Ranger Rick. Every so often Suzi would have to pop off to Washington or Monterey to photograh a baby sea otter or a kit. Suzi gave us the bundle of ‘beaver photos’ she accumulated that year to use in training. Including this lovely and familiar face.

Beavers are considered to be ‘keystone’ species, as the ponds and wetlands created by their dams increase the biodiversity of the local ecosystem. Previous research from the University of Stirling found that the presence of beavers in wetlands can lead to 33% more plant species and 26% more beetles.

The wildlife rehabilitators at Sarvey don camouflaging suits to look less human and prevent malimprinting – when a negative, non-reversible bond is created with the caregiver. They also paired the beaver with an adult female who had suffered her own traumatic journey.

Go help Suzi and beavers by voting for this adorable baby picture here;

Oh and the exciting conclusion to Jon’s citizen interview yesterday? He’s in baby! Swearing in ceremony in Oakland in three weeks. Not exactly ‘young’ but obviously I just had post this.

ALARM BELLS

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Dispersal February 5, 2019

So yesterday a former member of Worth A Dam who now works at the animal shelter mentioned that an animal control officer brought a beaver found in Martinez to Lindsey Wildlife hospital and described him as wet looking and confused and shared this photo.

So i called Cheryl to ask if she has any friends working there right now and found out that they had changed vets again and that she didn’t know for sure. it’s always hard to cold call Lindsey wildlife hospital because they tend to be – propietary – about the animals in their care. So it works better if someone is introduced to me, or knows Cheryl before hand. It’s frankly a little intimidating to call as a nonprofessional.

But even without an established contact it had to be done anyway. i worked up my best serious voice and called the hospital, explaining who I was and that I heard they might have been brought a beaver. The woman was oddly very solicitous on the phone and explained that one had just come in. I soon found out why when she said, surprisingly, ‘Yes I know who you are. It’s an honor to meet you! I just finished reading Eager.“

Well! That was a surprise. We chatted for a moment about Eager and how good the book was and she said how surprising it was to find a chapter about Martinez and how much she enjoyed it. I asked about the sex of the beaver, which she said ‘you know reading eager you learn its hard to tell!” And then I asked about the weight which would be more straight forward.

13 lbs.

She read a little from the notes saying that it looked ’emaciated” and ‘confused”. They had it down as an adult but I told her that wasn’t adult size. For a good while I was relieved because if it was that small it wasn’t a parent or our two year old which meant it wasn’t ours.

A quick glance at the calendar told me that today is February 1st and I’ve always said that in our area February is dispersal month So maybe it was a early disperser coming up the creek and getting lost?

i told the helpful rehabber that we would be happy to help if we could, with transport or funds or information. And she added my name and phone number to the file. i posted about the beaver on the Martinez FB page because I figured somebody saw or could tell me something. And learned that the beaver had been photographed near Armandos in the middle of the street that morning. Poor little guy.

I called back Cheryl and told her what i’d learned and we chatted about the mystery. She wondered if there could have been another kit we didn’t know about born in 2018. At first i was remembering the weird birthdate of our first kit and thinking 13 lbs still wouldn’t be large enough for a 16 month old kit. And then I went back and looked at the footage and realized this kit was born at the regular time, which, if there was a sibling we didn’t know about, would make him about 10 months, which could easily be around 13 lbs.

So this was the kit we knew about that Moses filmed in June. it’s possible he had a brother or sister that we didn’t know about? But we haven’t seen any activity around the Susana street dam so i was thinking, since Cassy shared that photo of the beaver at Arch street, that they might have moved upstream? And why would it look “emaciated?” A 13 lb 10 month old kit is just about right?

I will try and find out more today. i’m not even sure it made it through the night. Stay tuned.

Oh and GOOD LUCK TO JON today. Who will either become an American- eligible citizen today, or just another really frustrated commuter. The Queen wishes you good luck and i and the Beavers have faith in you!