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heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, History October 20, 2011

Archaeologist finds ancient beaver teeth in eastern Oregon — earliest record of the animal in North America

Nice Article from Ken Cole at The Wilderness News about the 7.2 million old beaver teeth found in eastern Oregon. Here’s my favorite part but you should go read it all:

Beavers play an important role in North America and its ecology. Beaver dams provide enormous benefits for all kinds of wildlife. In the West, they are very beneficial to trout by providing slower water refuges where the fish can grow to larger sizes, thus producing more eggs and offspring. The riparian vegetation that grows in association with beaver dams also creates habitat for songbirds and other wildlife.

He goes on to mention that some regions have been so damaged by cattle grazing that beaver could never be reintroduced because there isn’t enough soil to support willow. I suggested he take look at this and maybe rethink that position:

Must See TV

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere May 1, 2011

This breathless review of beavers in Britain is awesome television. I love the announcers excitement and enjoyment of the animal, his hushed wonder upon seeing them in person, and his pragmatic discussion of coppicing. This glorious beaver reporting is as good a way as any to say Happy First Birthday to our lovely kits YEARLINGS who are proving every day that the science of building dams ain’t ALL instinct.

One additional thought: Our beavers are a little cuter than castor fiber. Look especially at the bump on their snouty noses and think about our beavers and their beautiful canine noses. We definitely got the pretty cousin, but it’s a great film and I hope their is a trickle down effect for all that beaver excitement.

A Happy Accident

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Behavior, Beaver News, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere August 30, 2010

So my brief obsession with superciliary vibrissae lead to Sherri Tippie sending me some early kit photos that showed they were present from a young age. Mystery solved, but ohhh looking at these photos has caused such a grand commotion of oooohing and awwwwwwing among Worth A Dam members that we are incapable of forming complete sentences. I thought I’d share the source of my affliction with you, but first, the answer to the mystery, so we can lay that to rest. Look at those wiry black hairs above the eye. Not as stiff as an older beaver and certainly the sense isn’t as developed, but those are vibrissae.

Okay now that we’re done with that mystery, check out the entire photo. Remember Sherri is the top beaver relocator in the country so she often ends up caring for or raising kits/orphans. In this picture her friend Chris is holding a week old kit. Look at that tail against her wrist! . I’m thinking a visit to Colorado next June is in order?

Sure grown-ups and skilled professionals can manage to hold a beaver. But how difficult is it? Wouldn’t those incisors take out a finger? We are constantly meeting people (usually trappers) who tell us how vicious beavers are. I guess she’s holding that kit a special way or something to make it harder to get a dental grip?

Meet Anna R. who is 8 in this picture. Sherri tells me that when she was 5 she became cheerfully obsessed with beavers. Her dad says she used to walk around the family home repeating “Sherri Tippie! Sherrie Tippie! Sherri Tippie!”. (I know the feeling.) Even though she was too young to help with relocation, she wanted to be involved. This is such an traffic-stopping photo the police should be called. Here’s another one in case you want to see Anna and the beaver smile.

Photos courtesy of Sherri Tippie

Gosh those are lovely, thank you so much for sharing! And just in case you think we are just bunny huggers around here, I’ll offer some intellectual stimulation as well. Sharon Brown of Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife lets us know that her letter to the Buffalo News.com was printed in Thursdays issue. Remember the nice article about some researchers noticing that the beaver dam in Woodlawn Wetlands was actually helping water quality and restoring the stream? I wrote them that this wasn’t unique to Buffalo and that if New York could allow more beavers to improve the watershed we’d all be better off. Sharon thought so too

August 26, 2010, 6:54 AM

Thanks for Gerry Rising’s refreshing look at Woodlawn’s wetlands in the Aug. 15 News. Yet negative references to these oases of life still abound—i. e. recent comments about “draining the swamp” of D. C. government—even though wetlands are rated as the land’s best life-support system.

Luckily, we no longer need sacrifice wetlands benefits to prevent road flooding as the modern beaver flow devices are very efficient and cost-effective. Last summer our educational nonprofit sent a team (an engineer and me, a biologist, who were both born and raised in Buffalo suburbs) to Orchard Park to consult with the town engineer and highway superintendent about an installation in Birdsong Park. We can have win-win solutions.

Because beaver dams accentuate the normal filtering function of wetlands, often 90 percent less sediment is in the water downstream. This means less expensive treatment is needed at plants to produce drinking water. Plus, a series of dams keeps water on the land longer and slows the flow of streams, resulting in fewer droughts and less costly flood damage downstream. As such extreme weather events increase with climate change, the beaver can be our ally.

Marshy wetlands are, or will become, peatlands as dead vegetation accumulates underwater. Peatlands are the best ecosystem for carbon storage, but draining them allows the peat to oxidize and release carbon dioxide, the major greenhouse gas. It costs people from $10,000 to $100,000 to restore an acre of wetlands, but the average New York beaver family impounds 15 acres—and works for free.

Sharon T. Brown

Dolgeville

Superciliary Tufts

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Behavior, Educational, Environmental August 29, 2010

Back when I was trying to prove the number 1 picture of a beaver on (the) google was actually a nutri a (I’ll wait while you go check). I started noticing that beavers have unique whisker-like hairs above the eyes. If the lighting is right and you look close you’ll see them. Artists almost never include them but I made sure Libby added them to the beaver festival flyer. Apparently these are called “superciliary tufts” or “superciliary vibrissae”

Your cat has them and they tell him to blink and react to changes in the air flow to catch things. Whiskers in general are incredibly important as guides to tell an animal how close things are and whether they can squeeze in between them. Our wikipedia friend researched the issue and found a 2009 article saying that the neural information communicated by the vibrasse in aquatic mammals was so significant it deserved its own sensory name.: “The Vibrassal Sense.”

Behaviour and ecology of Riparian mammals

By Nigel Dunstone, Martyn L. Gorman

While beavers don’t have to worry so much about trees getting away from them, they do need to detect small changes in flow and water motion to know when and how to make repairs to their dam. Skip Lisle writes this about superciliary tufts in beavers:

Beavers have a phenomenal ability to find their way around a pond underwater in the pitch dark—-in deep water, under ice, at night. They know every square inch of the underwater world, all learned by touch. Various hairs must play an incredibly important role.

This makes total sense. When our very first kit got sick years ago and was found out to be blind we realized that his ability to navigate in water was never notably affected. Yesterday I realized I had never seen these ‘tufts’ on our kits, and lord knows I had been looking at them long enough to notice. Did that mean they get them when they got older? Could they be a mark of maturity? In scouring through photos it seemed like dad had more than mom. Maybe they get more as they aged? Could they be used to tell the maturity of a beaver? Who knew more about this mystery and who could help? I wrote every beaver expert I know to ask their thoughts and I’ll let you know what I learn.

Then I got out our heavy duty binoculars and went down to the dam for some tuft-hunting. Guess what I found our kits have?

Click on the picture to enlarge it. They’re there. While I was down there solving my own mystery, I heard some activity behind me downstream and saw some big wave action. As I was trying to find out who was below the dam, I saw a hulking furry figure scurry over it, dunk immediately underwater and run a steady line of bubbles all the way up to the lodge.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been almost two months since we saw him, but I kept telling myself he was most likely still here. Where would he go? I was by myself at the dam last night for most of the evening and maybe that’s why I saw him. He’s a wary beaver who stays away from commotion. I was sooo happy to see him, and know that our three lovely kits have at least two defenders to look after them.