Here I am, scratching my head and wondering just what to start typing after listening to this podcast. It’s a beaver-friendly discussion from KFGO in North Dakota with northern naturalist Stan Takeila who says beavers are just about his favorite animal to watch.

 Beaver Talk with Stan Tekeila

In This Podcast:  Noted naturalist, author, photographer, public speaker, and keeper of  www.naturesmart.com .   Today’s Topic:  Beavers.

There are so many things I share about his appreciation. I just love that he admires them. And as an avid reporter of National beaver news I know that the Dakotas in general are a strangely wonderful pocket of beaver wisdom,. He doesn’t perpetuate many of the erroneous beliefs beavers cause, He knows they eat bark and don’t pat mud with their tails, but why no discussion of their ecosystem services? And there are some serious holes in his knowledge. No mention of flow devices, a very dim understanding of tree protection, and, most seriously, the belief that kits only stay with their parents the first year before they are ‘kicked out’ to make way for the new children.

So in Stan’s world there are no yearlings? And he couldn’t ever explain this vision of brotherly beaver love because his idea of families never includes siblings.

Well, it’s a big world and we are definitely grading on a curve. If you want to see the column written by Stan here’s the way it starts.

Walking on gravel in the dark, I was doing my best to not make any noise. I could kind-of-see where I was going but when you are carrying heavy and expensive camera gear and tripod, you always want to be extra careful. Approaching the edge of the clear-water pond, I sat down and started to organize all of the camera gear.

Beavers are one of my favorite critters. The North American Beaver, usually just called Beaver, is only one of two beaver species in the world. It’s native to North America but has been introduced to South America and also parts of Europe. It is the official symbol of Canada and the official mammal of the state of Oregon.

I love his description of how to photograph beavers because it reminds me of going down to the beaver dam in the pre-dawn light and being as still as possible.  Great images are his reward, and some wonderful moments of watching. I’ll do what I can to fill up his information bucket about yearlings and mention about beavers and saltwater.

You can’t complain about a few little inaccuracies when a man is talking to another man on the radio about liking beavers in North Dakota. Right?