Young beavers need to stay with their parents for around 2 years before they ‘disperse’ or go off to seek their fortune. That’s about a fifth of their life, which if we’re lucky enough to live to 90 and stay home only until we’re 18 is about equivalent. Maybe that’s why they seem so familiar to us. We know what its like to stick around the same place day after day.
Of course every so often we lose our family or one of our family, like Beatrice here. Robin sent me this video from a Kentucky rehab last night. Brace yourself because you’re about to say awwww very loudly. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
So fuzzy and such a tiny bent nose! Oh my stars and whiskers! “She will more than likely become an ambassador animal” Is about the worst fate anyone could imagine, but god knows they need a lot of beaver education in Kentucky. I suppose she’ll visit classrooms until she’s too big to lug in a pet carrier and then she’ll live in an outdoor cage maybe like Chompa at a kiddie zoo.
Ugh.
But maybe, we can persuade them that beavers matter enough to use her as an spokesperson for better fish and wildlife, fewer droughts and more birds. Hmm Kentucky? That’s where Ian’s from. Maybe they’d be interested in his why beavers matter stopmotion about beavers that won the science fair?
For some reason we’re back again to Oklahoma where that little beaver in Skiatook. I guess he wasn’t as young as he looked because he really would be dead by now if he was.
Nature Note: Beavers build dams in Skiatook
Beavers are fairly common in the Skiatook area and can be found along Bird Creek and on smaller streams and ponds.
The beaver is the largest rodent in North America. Rodents are gnawing mammals and all of them have continuously growing pairs of upper and lower teeth. The beaver’s teeth are large and are orange or chestnut-colored. Beavers are found in nearly all of Canada and the United States.
However, they were nearly trapped to extinction by the fur trade during the early 19th century when beaver pelts were the most valuable commodity in much of North America. Beavers that live along rivers and large streams make burrows in the bank whereas those living on ponds and lakes build lodges of sticks, grasses and mud.
Since the writer clearly uses the word lodges I have zero idea why the description in the photo says the beaver is “Building a nest”. He’s not a bird. And its impossible to imagine how building a cozy platform beneath him would provide any protection or safe exit back to the water. Still, it’s Oklahoma and the beaver is not yet trapped and that’s pretty amazing all by itself.
Beavers pair for life and the young stay with the parents for two years before leaving to establish territories of their own, usually in February or March.
Recently a young beaver showed-up on our pond. It made a winding, nearly two-mile trek from Bird Creek, following a draining system that passed through a small pond and three forks along the way.
Good luck Beatrice and Sooner state beaver! There’s a lot to learn and teach others on your way ahead.
