Category: Beaver Anatomy

LIFE IS BETTER WITH BEAVERS

This was a fine study to emerge yesterday. No one at all should be surprised, but we can all bask in the glow of having it prove exactly what we all knew it would.

Study shows beavers had a big influence on how people in the Stone Age lived

For thousands of years, beavers had a big influence on the Dutch ecosystem and the people that lived there. This is the conclusion of research by archaeologist Nathalie Brusgaard. The rodents were used for food, clothing and tools, and created a landscape hospitable to many other species.

Together with fellow archaeologist Shumon Hussain (Aarhus University), Brusgaard analyzed previous excavations in the Netherlands, southern Scandinavia, the Baltic region and Russia. These showed that beavers were a much larger part of the human diet and landscape of northern Europe than had previously been thought.

Hunter-gatherers hunted beavers in the Middle and Late Stone Age for their meat, fur and castoreum, and used their bones and teeth to make tools. Beavers were one of the most common mammals at some archaeological sites in the Netherlands according to research recently published in The Holocene.

According to Brusgaard, the beavers created a diverse ecosystem. They change the water level in their habitat so the entrance to their lodge is flooded but they can sleep in the dry. To achieve this, they need the water at a certain level, which they control by building dams.

Other organisms, such as fish, waterfowl and certain plants, benefit from the resulting landscape. “Beavers create a lot of dynamism in a forest, which is good for biodiversity. At archaeological sites where there were many beaver traces, there were also many traces of otters, wild boar, pike, perch and carp. These species thrive in the ecosystem that beavers create.”

Do get that? For thousands of years primitive man found life better and more comfortable and more rewarding when they were beavers around, not just to dress up in their furs or carve things with their teeth but because they were actively making the world better for a million other species which they were going to use later.

Life is better with beavers. Say it with me now.

The research suggests that people liked to live in these “beaver landscapes” because of the presence of food and resources. “We suspect that hunter-gatherers benefited from the rich biodiversity that beavers created.” It is clear from traces on bone remains that people ate beavers. Research on beaver skulls shows that hunters killed them with a blow to the head, presumably to avoid damaging the fur to ensure it could still be used. Beaver jaws and teeth were used to make woodworking tools.

Brusgaard’s research shows that humans benefitted from beavers for thousands of years. “We can learn lessons from the past. And we all benefit from a healthy ecosystem. We have to learn once again to live with beavers.”

Annnnd scene! I could not have said that better myself Nathalie…you have all my full endorsement. So by the time that we completely destroyed the population for greed, we already knew how important they were for thousands of years and decided to do it anyway,

Not a surprise.

NO TAIL? NO PROBLEM!

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beavers December 11, 2022

Do you remember that beaver from a while ago Patti wrote about with no tail? Well she has learned more about them and its worth sharing.

Patti Smith | View from Heifer Hill: Beaver chronicles, part two

This month, I take you, once again, to my wild brook for the next installment of the beaver chronicles. To recap: counter to all expectations, in this large, vacant watershed, two half-sisters have moved in next door to each other. Ten-year-old Dew has a kit or two from the spring. Four-year-old Gentian is living on her own, or is she? Also residing on this stretch of stream is a large, stealthy fellow who is missing that most iconic beaver appendage, his tail. Is he the father of Dew’s kits? Does he also have a relationship with Gentian?

When I introduced this male last month, I had only had a few glimpses of him. The trauma that took his tail left him a very cautious beast. This month, I had reason to hope for better data; West Coast beaver friends had visited and left me with trail cams. I positioned one by each of the lodges under construction in the complex. The cameras have created a record of a most mercurial month, literally and figuratively. Certain facts have been revealed. Mysteries remain.

My friend Suzanne Husky came up with a name for the abbreviated male. I knew she would; she is a collector of beaver place names and mythology, especially in her native France. She is engaged there in reconnecting people with their beavery past and, she hopes, their beavery future. She proposed Bebryx (Proto-Celtic ‘beaver’) after a king from Greek mythology.

The cameras have captured Here’ often, always upstream at Dew’s lodge. One evening, the camera showed him dining and grooming on a shelf of ice streamside. One of the kits swam over, climbed up next to him, and began to groom him. It’s confirmed. He’s the papa. When he got up and dove into the water, I got a good look at the place where his tail should have been. A beaver’s backside tapers in a muscular wedge. The flat, leathery tail attaches at ground level. All that remained of this fellow’s tail was the furry part gathered into a scar at the site of the injury.

Nice job Suzanne, And nice job mystery beaver! I never even knew about that name! Here;’s what wikipedia has to say about it, “ultimately stemming from Proto-Celtic*brebu (‘beaver’; see Gaulishbebros, bebrus, Old IrishBibar, ‘beaver’).^[2]^[5]Ivan Duridanov also suggested that the ethnonym was related to Indo-European words meaning “beaver”. I guess if you have no tail you deserve a really special name.

On Nov. 15, an early freeze-up began with a snowstorm. By that point, the beavers had finished the structural work on their lodges and were moving on to plastering. A camera recorded Bebryx working from midnight until 2 a.m. He triggered the camera each time he clambered from the stream with an armload of mud. He would then rear up to balance on his hind legs and stagger upward; the load pressed between his chin and chest. The beaver’s lurching progress up the side of the lodge would not earn style points in the competition, but beavers are adapted for grace in the water. That they also manage bipedal locomotion while carrying a load of roofing materials is quite a feat.

Bebryx made 13 trips that night. The first nine loads were delivered in rapid succession. He then took a lunch break, followed by a more leisurely second shift. Dew began her shift at 2 a.m., delivering eight loads over the course of two hours. All the while, the snow came down, and ice crystals snapped together.

You don’t think a little thing like having no tail is going to stop me from working do you? Of course not. I’m a beaver. Not a quitter.

Snow and ice reigned through mid-November. Then came the thaw and rains. One night, I was greeted at the brook by a sweet fog of castoreum. This beaver perfume is among the information-rich secretions that beavers use to communicate. Sometimes the message is “come-hither.” More often, it is “this place is taken.” These beavers had not been actively scent marking since the spring. Before I had time to look for the source, Dew swam up. Blood trickled from a wound above her eye. A large gash had been torn on her hip, and a couple of chunks had been nipped from her hide. I had just missed a beaver battle. Someone had reported seeing beaver tracks crossing a ridge trail into this drainage a few days earlier. Trail cameras showed Gentian continuing her work, oblivious, so it seems the interloper was forced to flee upstream. This is not a good season for a beaver to be on the move. Winter survival depends upon having a lodge and an underwater supply of food before freeze-up. I hope the poor vagrant is situated now.

On a few occasions, the trail cams have recorded the local mink making his rounds. Voles have been captured emerging from chinks in the roof of Gentian’s lodge. One night recently, two pointy ears loomed in front of the camera by Dew’s lodge. The next video showed Dew on the lodge, sniffing nervously. Minutes later, the owner of the ears stepped into the frame — a bobcat. I could only watch in horror as the cat lowered into a stalk and crept toward the sound of a beaver chewing offscreen. The adults and one kit have been observed since. Am I cruel to hope the bobcat left hungry?

Good lord. There are so many dangers in a beavers life, must I always be on edge during your columns?

I am writing this, pondside, on a night in early December. The light of a half-moon has found its way through high, thin clouds. The temperature is dropping. In a new development, Bebryx is allowing himself to be seen. He is floating nearby, chewing on a branch, perfectly relaxed. Dew’s wounds are healing, but she is on edge. I wonder if the bobcat has been back.

When I stopped to check the camera by Gentian’s lodge, she swam over to the shore and then off to her food cache. Who is that second beaver who shows up in the shadows of her beaver cam?

By the time I write my next column, winter will be here in earnest. The beavers will be sealed into their wintry world, safe from predators. I hope it will be a cozy, companionable season and that they will have plenty to eat. I hope the same for you.

Ohh Patti. Your writing is so sweet and entirely human. I could follow you to the ends of the earth. You are the mother Theresa of beavers. Without all the complicated parts of course. Anyway yes, we are cozy and have enough food, thank you. And god bless us ever one!

WHAT HAS A PINK NOSE, WHITE WHISKERS AND FIGHTS CLIMATE CHANGE?

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beavers and climate change December 2, 2022

Well that’s a mystery for you. I pride myself on being able to identify WRU (Wrong Rodent Use) in photos accompanying beaver stories. But this clever video from PBS Above the Noise teen educational series has me stumped. I even wrote them and said whatever mysterious animal that was it wasn’t a beaver. And they wrote back and said, whoops!

“Good call! Probably a capybara!”

Which is even funnier, because how many capybaras do you know with white whiskers and pink noses?

Anyway the rest of the video is well done and stars our friend Emily Fairfax, it makes sense and is worth sharing.

Maybe it’s a pet. Like a hamster. Hmm. I think I’ll name him “peeve”.

THE TALE OF NO TAIL

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy November 18, 2022

I had a saying for 15 years that I might decide to replace. The saying was that “Beavers change things” which is still true today and no less relevant but I’m approaching full embrace of a new saying. “Beavers get over things“. This is based on their remarkable and increasingly emerging ability to adapt. Habituate. ADAPT. To whatever seems to happen in their lives. Captured and stored in a fish pond before relocation? They adapt. Rehabbed in somebodies living room for a year? They adapt. Beavers seem to make a considerable effort to change things to their liking, They try and try over and over again. With their friends and without getting irritated or annoyed.

And then, with very little ceremony or fanfare, if they can’t beat it, join it.

Patti Smith | View from Heifer Hill: A strange beaver tale

I wrote of the possible existence of this beaver kit in June when I found that his mother, Dew, a beaver who had been living in isolation for a year, was about to give birth. The only other beaver in I had seen in this watershed was Dew’s half-sister, Gentian, so the most likely explanation for her pregnancy was, I told myself, immaculate conception

I was not surprised that Dew would be so chosen. Those of you who have read this column before will not need to be told why Dew is an extraordinary beaver. You will know that she has survived numerous trials, including the wounds inflicted by the bear that killed her mother.

Because I had been busy with other beavers over the summer, I couldn’t return to visit Dew and meet her holy child until late September. There was no sign of them in the pond where I had last seen her. No worries. Beavers move often. For a week, I searched along the rest of the brook and then along the tributaries. I found no beavers anywhere and feared the worst.

Patti does her best to locate Dew and then she gives up. Thinking that maybe something happened to her and focusing her attention on her sister Gentian. Did she ever mate? Why don’t they live closer together? In looking for Dew she notices something very very surprising.

Since then, I have been heading down to the brook most nights. I most often see Gentian at work in a new pond in the downstream section. Dew inhabits the upstream portion. One night, in the upstream region, I saw a beaver swimming underwater, the biggest beaver I had ever seen in this brook. I checked and then checked again. This beaver had no tail. He swam under a submerged log to hide. Beavers can hold their breath for 15 minutes in a pinch. I had no wish to cause a pinch for this fellow, so I set out to look for the other beavers.

A beaver with NO TAIL! Is such a thing possible? Of course it is. Beavers get over it. This beaver knew when to be cautious. And probably had to adapt some muscles to master swimming and diving without the equipment. But he had found a life and a mate.

Two actually.

As this puzzle piece clicked into place, a very curious picture was beginning to emerge: a beaver that suffered such a traumatic injury might well become extremely wary. Such a beaver might be invisible to a distracted beaver watcher for months. He was probably the beaver I had seen in Gentian’s territory, too. This fellow was the likely father of Dew’s kit. I think that when the puzzle is completed, the picture will reveal the sisters living next door to each other and sharing a mate. There are still enough pieces missing that I could be very wrong.

Downstream I found Gentian deftly cleaving the bark from a birch branch. Upstream, Dew swam over to say hello and enjoy an apple. Tendrils of mist flowed across the pond as the night cooled. I saw the tiny beaver near the spot where I had first seen the beaver with no tail. The small creature seemed preternaturally calm. As he climbed ashore to groom, I contemplated his parentage. His father might not be a deity, but he surely has superpowers. How else would a beaver survive the loss of such a major appendage? How else could he adapt to life without it? This little beaver has no halo, but he has some stellar genes.

A beaver with two wives and no tail! Now this is Patti talking here so we can only believe her. If such a thing were true and possible she would be the one to see it. People survive all kinds of amputations but they have prosthetics to help them out. Not beavers. No one will ever get warned by him again.

But still. A tail eaten by a bear is better than a beaver eaten by a bear. And beavers get over it.

HOW THE BEAVER GOT ITS TAIL

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Chewing March 8, 2022

Remember a few days ago we talked about the great new park in Delaware based on stories of the Nanicoke tribe? I showed you the new climbing structure where parents can use their smart phone to hear the creation story of “How the beaver got its tail” and I was so impressed I said I would go looking for it. Well I did and I just know you want to hear all about it.

Well according to the Ojibwe legend, the beaver used to have a beautiful fluffy tail – kind of a cross between a squirrel and a fox and a wolverine. And it would stroll vainly across the forest like Princess Diana in her wedding veil and ask other creatures if they admired it? (more…)