Category: Beaver Behavior

Beavers International

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Educational, Environmental August 25, 2017

Another wonderful beaver film from our friend Willy de Koning of the Netherlands. She also wrote me a note about the different origins of the brown and black beavers. Looks like we have some fruits of diversity growing in the beaver tree too!

I’d like to sent you a new film of the beavers in Limburg, the south part of The Netherlands where I live. There also live a lot of beavers, more and more during the years. It’s not difficult to see them. In this part of the country live brown and black beavers. De black beavers were reintroduced in the Eifel in Germany and came originally from Poland. In Poland they were in earliyer years held fot their fur and specially selected for that
From the German Eifel they came to he south part of The Netherlands by small rivers. Now we have beaver families with brown, darkbrown and black beavers.

Wow, thanks Willy. That is really fun to see. I assume on smaller rivers these guys are still building dams every now and then? It’s wonderful to see the population recovering. Although maybe everyone doesn’t share our excitement.

Now from Canada we have the most polite article I have ever seen about a beaver dam washing out the road. Considering how much damage it caused, it’s amazingly good hearted. I guess it’s true what they say about those nice Canadians?

Builder beavers can obliterate roads when dams collapse

Two cars on Highway 141 in Muskoka, Ont. plunge into a submerged crevasse drivers believed was simply a flooded roadway. Though each road was damaged by a mad rush of water, the flood could be traced to a single cause — the collapse of a dam built by beavers.

No foul to the beavers. Their diligent dam building helps create beneficial wetlands and encourages bio-diversity. However, like all real estate, the location of dams is critical.

“Beavers are very industrious and love to stop the flow of water,” says John Potts, maintenance superintendent at the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) Bancroft office. “We often have beavers working alongside our highways.”

Potts says he admires the industriousness of beavers and respects the impressive force of water and sediment released when a dam bursts.

“Typically we experience one dam break per year and some of them are not very significant,” he says. “But I wouldn’t want to be driving through the area at the moment a big dam lets loose.”

I’m sure we all wish we had beaver-wisdom in our road crews but seriously? You can’t blame the beavers for trying? I think I need to sit down. I’m feeling a little weak around the knees. Usually transportation crews are not friends to the beaver, but this is one for the history books.Thanks for the eye opener, Ontario!

The Watch of the Wild

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Chewing, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and Insects, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, What's killing beavers now?, Who's blaming beavers now?, Who's saving beavers now? August 24, 2017

Fantastic column today from Karen Corker, the director of WildWatch in Maine. I’m guessing she attended Skip’s lectures last year in the state. Or maybe she even made them happen? Either way this is exactly the kind of writing we want to see everywhere.

Maine Voices: Beaver Deceivers allow people, nature’s engineers to go with the flow

At the end of each summer, Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife determines the fate of thousands of beavers. August is the month the department sets the trapping season dates for beavers across Maine’s 29 wildlife management districts. Towns and private property owners may request that specific areas be closed to trapping, but the closures represent a tiny fraction of the vast territory that is open to trappers to kill beavers in Maine without limit for five to six months a year.

Approximately 10,000 beavers lose their lives each year as a result of this aggressive, expansive approach to beaver management. The number of other, non-targeted animals killed in traps set for beavers is not generally reported, but the department admits that otters are frequent victims because they share the same wetland habitats.

Now I just have to interject and say how on earth does she know that the number of beavers trapped? I’m guessing she’s citing the numbers that come from the USDA stats for Maine, but is USDA the only folks allowed to do nuisance trapping? In California APHIS is responsible for a very small fraction of beavers killed by depredation permit, which can also be used by private trappers. I assume that’s true for other states as well.

There are two primary justifications for such extensive trapping. The first is that beavers have historically been regarded as “nuisance” animals, largely because of their damming behavior. When beavers clog culverts, the channels that run under roads, it often results in the flooding of roads and other properties.

The second justification derives from the department’s embrace of trapping as a recreational activity and primary wildlife management tool. In 2015, trapping proponents persuaded IF&W’s legislative committee to rewrite Maine statute to require the department to use trapping as a key basis for managing the state’s wildlife.

Another correction based on our reviews of depredation permits, is that the vast majority of depredation permits are sought for damage to landscaping. In fact there’s even a comment to the article that mentions tree damage. There are far more landowners who own trees than culverts I guess. So it’s a more common complaint. In California the deniens of beavers killed as ‘nuisances’ dwarfs the fur trapping numbers. That may be slightly different in Maine, but I doubt it.

A rapid evolution in our understanding of beavers and their value is eroding these justifications. Beavers are a keystone species; they create ecosystems that nourish a multitude other animals and plants. The marshes and meadows they build create ecological stability. With more than a third of freshwater fish and amphibians in the U.S. either extinct or at risk of extinction, the wetlands beavers produce have unrivaled potential to reverse these accelerating losses.

Along with the evolution in understanding of beavers’ contributions to healthy habitats, high quality flow devices – Beaver Deceivers, for example – have also evolved in recent decades.

When these devices are well-designed, well-constructed, and professionally installed, they prevent flooding, keep beavers and their benefits on the landscape, and offer long-term solutions to human/beaver conflicts at significantly lower cost than road repairs and beaver trapping. When such devices are not employed at conflict sites, beavers have to be destroyed continually. This approach is not only costly, it precludes the formation of the fertile habitats that support a rich and diverse assortment of wildlife and plant life.

In short, removal by trapping is not a lasting, economical, or ecologically-smart solution; any emptied beaver habitat is soon resettled, and the never-ending cycle of conflict and killing simply begin again. IF&W is not unaware of the benefits and effectiveness of flow-devices. The department has, in fact, stepped up its promotion of non-lethal solutions to beaver/human conflict through their use.

This is obviously my FAVORITE part of the letter, and the best wording I’ve seen on the subject. Good job Karen, you hit all the right notes. And it sounds a lot like Skip so I’m assuming they know each other. The column goes on to talk about the humane concerns about trapping, but in my considered opinion THIS is the power part. Just leave out the compassion next time Karen, and go straight for the economic value. People are inherently selfish and listen closer when their pocket book is involved, I promise.

Any Maine citizen who would like to share comments or concerns about the proposed beaver trapping season can express their views at a public hearing on Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. at the Augusta Armory, Room 209B, 179 Western Ave., Augusta. The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife is also accepting written comments on the season until Sept. 8. Comments can be emailed to becky.orff@maine.gov.

That’s a formal cue to send some comments about how well flow devices work and how beaver problems can be managed. You know I will! Right after I send Karen a note to thank her for this nicely written reminder.

As a naturalist.com

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and water, Environmental, Who's blaming beavers now? August 22, 2017

Now if you all had a question about beavers you’d ask me, right? And you know even if I didn’t know the answer you’d trust me not to make it up or pretend that I knew but take the trouble to find the right person who did. You know I’d never ask someone who knew nothing about the subject matter just because he’d say what I expected to hear because that would be foolish. Nature specializes, and if you want to know about jaguars you go to the jaguar expert, right?

We’re not quite as confident about the beaver education of “Ask a naturalist.com” run by Tom and Kate Pelletier. They maintain a fairly glossy website where they answer questions from readers in mostly accurate ways. Tom is a writer and Naturalist and Kate is the editor of the site and Operations Assistant for the Nature Conservancy. I believe at one time they lived in Massachusetts not very far away from Mike Callahan, but I’m thinking their beaver knowledge is not exactly top notch, based on the answer to this recent question:

Can I swim with beavers?

Common knowledge associates giardiasis and beavers so closely that people often call the disease “beaver fever.” However, it’s not clear that beavers very often contaminate people with Giardia. In fact, it seems that Giardia species tend to specialize. So the Giardia that most commonly infects beaver is different from the one that infects people. However, most Giardia have some ability to infect organisms other than their primary host, and you can find human-type Giardia in beavers. But the evidence suggests that when it is found in swimming waters and in beavers, the most common source of the human-type Giardia is not the beavers but people. Typically, it’s from untreated sewage that gets into the water or from fecal matter washing off people when they are in the water. For that reason, health officials recommend that people with diarrhea stay out of swimming waters.

When I asked Lihua Xiao, who is Chief of the Molecular Epidemiology Laboratory/WBDP of the Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases for the United States Centers for Disease Control, for his opinion about swimming with beavers, he said flatly “I would not swim in a pond where beavers are active.”

First of all, just because it rhymes doesn’t mean its true. Yes beavers can cause Giardiasis just like any other mammal, and most mammals, as it happens, aren’t too particular about not pooping in the water. But they don’t carry it MORE. To be fair, he does go on to describe a study which showed that muskrats carried the disease far more commonly than beavers. BUT he accompanied it with a photo of a nutria which he only just recently changed when it was pointed out to him in by a reader in May two years after this article appeared. Which begs the question, naturalist?

If you do decide to swim in your beaver pond, you should, as much as possible, avoid swallowing the water, and you should never drink untreated surface waters. The recommendation is to boil or use filters that specifically say they will remove Giardia. The cysts of Giardia and Cryptosporidium are somewhat resistant to chlorine, so don’t count on that. Boiling and filtration will also kill or remove most other waterborne diseases and parasites at the same time, including any worm-like parasite.

Do you think Tom has read any of the humorous articles from beaver researchers in other countries that point out that it’s only ENGLISH speaking nations that associate beavers with beaver fever because of it’s only in our language that they rhyme? Do you think he knows that the biggest risk of swimming is for dogs when folks let them swim too close to their families in June and July when they are protecting kits? Do you think he’s ever seen this photo of beaver expert Sharon Brown doing this?

I’m going out on a limb and saying the answer to these questions is NO. He does end the article with a reference to a Washington state website on living with beavers, but that is small compensation after talking to the foremost researcher on infectious diseases who, last I checked, knew bunk about beavers.

Might I suggest that the NEXT time someone asks you a question about beavers you talk to a beaver expert? Oh and here’s a helpful way to tell muskrats and nutria apart.

Nothing succeeds like beaver succession

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Educational, Environmental, Who's saving beavers now? August 21, 2017

Pond succession is something you hear discussed a fair amount as pond bottoms become more rich with plant material and ultimately turn into forests – but it all happens better with beavers of course. Apparently Ducks unlimited is teaming up with USFS and Fish and Game to look at how it all plays out. Because studying something nine million times always produces different results, right?

Pacific Northwest – More Information

Background information on DU’s Pacific Northwest conservation priority area

Importance to waterbirds

These systems have traditionally been used as spring staging areas. Cook Inlet and the Copper River Delta are among the most important wetlands to the world’s populations of western sandpiper and dunlin. The Stikine is also a traditional fall staging area for Wrangel Island snow geese. Common wintering shorebirds include black oystercatchers, rock sandpipers, black turnstones, and surfbirds. Seabirds (murres, murrelets, auklets) are common breeders throughout Prince William Sound. Southeastern Alaska has over 2,800 important anadromous fish streams, and over 15,000 bald eagles use this habitat.

Goals

Complete successional vegetation modeling for the Copper River Delta and analyze pond succession related to beaver activity.

Now we both know that there are a lot of places where Ducks Unlimited does a lot of good in the world. Buying up habitat for duck hunters is useful in populated areas or areas that have been degraded by industry. But buying hunting grounds in Alaska is probably not high on the list of good deeds for the environment. And you can tell they’re clutching at any research straws hoping to justify it their presence – installing pit tags on salmon and measuring where molting is most likely to occur in geese.

But looking at the role beavers play in pond succession is soooo soooo reinventing the wheel the Alaska Parks department even has a unit on it for 4th graders. Hear that? Nine year olds know more than DU. Because it’s old news, baby.

4-6, Unit Four, Activity 5<br>”Beaver Succession Mural”

Students will discuss the concept of succession and describe beaver pond succession as one example of the process of change in natural environments. They will apply an understanding of the concept of succession by drawing a mural showing stages of beaver pond succession.

Grades: 4 – 6
Time: 1 – 2 hours
Life science, visual arts

When beavers dam a stream, they set in motion a form of succession. The resulting backwater floods lowland near the creek. Trees are soon killed, creating an opening in the forest canopy. Water-associated plants and shrubs quickly invade the pond and shoreline, creating favorable habitat for waterfowl, moose, blackbirds, amphibians, fish, insects, muskrats, wading birds, warblers, marsh hawks, and a score of other animals. After many years the water becomes shallow, filling in with silt and plant debris.

Stimulated by the nutrient-rich mud, grasses, sedges, and shrubs begin to choke the water with their accumulating debris. The ground begins to firm as more silt is trapped.

As years pass, the trees near the lodge are cut down by the beavers for use as food and shelter. The beavers must move on and find a new spot to support themselves. Without the beavers to keep it strong, the old dam collapses, draining the pond. The area becomes meadow, supporting grasses, sedges, and other flowering plants. Trees begin to re-invade the drier ground and eventually the meadow reverts to forest. Centuries may be required to see this process completed.

What can we expect next for the exciting research teams at Ducks Unlimited? One can only speculate they’ll be looking into what bears do in the woods and why ducks float instead of sink on water. The curious scientific community will have to be patient.

In the meanwhile we can respect the work that really teaches us about beavers habitat, mostly coming out of NOAA fisheries. This morning there is another lecture on beavers and salmon offered by the Alaska Public Radio station. KTNA. I promise if you listen to the easy three minutes you’ll soon know more than any duck hunter.

Beaver Solidarity

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? August 20, 2017

In Kingston Ontario, just across the border from New York, city Council member Lisa Osanic just made HISTORY by presenting arguments for no longer killing beavers but using flow devices instead in the entire city. She submitted a petition with 1000 signatures. No I’m not kidding.

Beaver Petition

Residents want Kingston to protect one of Canada’s national symbols.

Coun. Lisa Osanic presented a 1,000-name petition that urges the city to stop killing beavers, citing the practice as cruel and unnecessary. The industrious creatures are known for their dam-building abilities. The city currently hires a trapper to exterminate beavers through the use of underwater traps.

However, Coun. Osanic says there are other humane, non-lethal devices that can be used. She pointed to the City of London and Ontario’s use of flow devices to prevent beaver dam flooding. Coun. Osanic says an expert from Boston taught London city officials how the device works, and she wants local officials to be taught as well.

It was years ago that residents from Cornwall brought Mike Callahan out to install a flow device to save some beavers. This summer a petition was started to do the same in Kingston. This just goes to show the kind of RIPPLE effect that those earlier actions had. Hurray for everyone involved, and Hurray most of all to our newest beaver friend Counselor Lisa Osanic!

I heard this weekend from Kent Woodruff (USFS retired) who was in Oregon looking to connect with Suzanne Fouty (Also USFS not yet retired). Turns out now they’ll be taking a camping trip in the back woods to watch the eclipse together with friends! How beavery is that? Here in Martinez we don’t get a total but we’re still excited. This is a great resource if you want to see what to expect where you are. I don’t think the beavers have ever seen a total eclipse before but I’m assuming they’ll sleep through it. If you are looking for truly remarkable ways to record the experience or maybe keep your child curious, here’s what our good friend Jack Laws suggests.