With the weirdly warm temperatures we had yesterday its worth thinking about how different our beavers lives are from those on the North East Coast. In Vermont, for example, where beaver expert Skip Lisle lives, the winter freeze has kept his beavers in the lodge for some time now. They live entirely on the food they have stored over the rest of the season. He recently wrote:
My beavers are under a foot of ice right now, getting cabin fever, and getting thin. It’s just a metabolic race against time—whoever lasts longer, the beavers or the winter, wins.
If a beaver who lives part of the year under ice, spends part of the year not feeding, building up reserves and using them up has got to be part of the beaver grand design. In our more comfortable climate we shouldn’t be surprised if our beavers get a little “rounder”, since they feed all year and do not fast.
Imagine the intricate family bonding that goes on between eight beavers holed up in an area the size of a hottub, trapped under ice for three months out of the year. That’s like a cross country drive stuck in the back seat with your brothers playing I spy or punch buggy from New York to San Francisco that lasts a season.
[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=Plzafk41Bg4&eurl]
