Category: Beaver Behavior

“We’ve never seen anything like this”

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's blaming beavers now? January 9, 2015

Apparently this was such an unexpected calamity in Woodinville that there are no fewer than 20 articles on the subject this morning. Traffic stopped because of an actual beaver blocking an actual culvert! That ~~never~~ (always) happens! I suppose this beaver built his dam far inside the culvert, where it was harder to remove. (Pretty smart actually. More privacy AND protection). Valiant Washington Transportation Crews worked all day using grappling hooks and security lines. Reporters stood by faithfully reporting on their every progress. “He’s inside the pipe. We have first contact”.

Honesstly, you would think they were free climbing El Capitan’s Dawn Wall.

At least its not as bad as Hamilton, Ontario where, out of the blue, unexpected beavers are suddenly taking established trees for no reason at all!

MAHONEY: A trail of beaver dam-age

The beaver finds many trees at hand. Along the Waterfront Trail, for instance. So now we have a problem; not so horribly divisive as, say, the one-way/two-way street debate over which Hamilton families have torn themselves asunder, but it’s a puzzler. We’re losing arbour by the harbour-ful.

“He’s incredible,” says John Smith, half admiringly, half resentfully, pointing out a bare patch in the beautiful screen of trees between trail path and water.

“Look at the gap he’s cleared away.”

I count 12 stumps in a four-metre stretch, but everywhere along the trail one finds ample evidence of the beaver’s xylophagic efficiency (sit back down; it means “wood-eating”).

Beavers chewing trees in winter? Say it isn’t so! I mean you cover the beaver beat for a few years, and you think you’ve hardened to the horror of it all. You think nothing can penetrate that thick skin you’ve developed after all the damage and brutalization. But then something like this happens and just throws everything into chaos.

First the culvert, and now this!

There must be some way to solve this problem. Some clue to a solution. But where? The article kindly mentions that walkers like the beavers so killing them isn’t an option. But what else can they do? If there was only some indication of a solution that they could go on, just some hint or shred of evidence of what might possibly work,

Too bad the article was only published with this ole’ photo.

BUSY BEAVERS John Rennison,The Hamilton Spectator John Smith marvels at the work of our national emblem, the beaver. But as an avid user of our water front trail, he's noticed a drastic decrease in the tree population along the shore and islands of the trail because of beaver damage.

What will we do with the other four hours?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers and Birds, Beavers and Frogs, Beavers and salmon, Beavers and trout, Beavers and water, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental, Who's Killing Beavers Now?, Who's saving beavers now? January 8, 2015

American Beaver Special for 20 Hours Straight

American Beaver Airs from 7 a.m. Monday,

Feb. 2, 2015, to 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015

(WASHINGTON, D.C. – Jan. 7, 2015) The groundhog is a big player on its big day, appearing for a few seconds on Groundhog Day to tell us how long winter will last, then disappearing for an entire year. Now Nat Geo WILD gives another member of the rodent family its due, dedicating an entire day to the American Beaver. In the grand tradition of Bill Murray’s classic holiday movie Groundhog Day, Nat Geo WILD will replay its American Beaver special for 20 hours straight, airing from 7 a.m. Monday, Feb. 2, 2015, to 3 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3. (For more information, visit natgeowild.com and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/NGC_PR.)

Just 20 hours? How will we occupy ourselves the other four? Oh, right. Follow that link on the left margin and watch Jari Osborn’s PBS documentary.

Twice.

It’s nice to see someone celebrating beaver. They certainly deserve it. And besides, we just found out that National Geographic has NEVER had a beaver on its cover. Ever. So they’re certainly due. If you’ve never seen “American Beaver” you’re in for treat. Here’s a glimpse but you can watch more snippets here:

You just know that they saw the PBS documentary and the NYTimes article and the AP article and thought, hmm how can we ride on these successful coattails?Well all I can say is it’s about time. Now if they would only cover this next kind of story. Too bad they don’t mean the OTHER kind of beaver bounty.

Increase in bounty brings more beavers

FOREST CITY, IA – More beaver tails have arrived at the Winnebago County Auditor’s Office the past several weeks since the county raised its bounty on beavers. Deputy auditor Kris Wempen said the county has paid about $600 in bounty since the bounty was raised to $50 on Oct. 28.

MMXV

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beaver Behavior, Beavers and water, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Who's saving beavers now? January 1, 2015

Happy 2015! We can celebrate the new year with some great beaver stories and two fantastic images. The first is from Alberta and made me smile.

Broken beaver dam in Ont. leads to fines for Alberta company

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry says it has fined an Alberta mining company for breaking a beaver dam near Savant Lake, in northwestern Ontario.

Pacific Iron Ore Corporation of Calgary pleaded guilty in court on Dec. 9 and was fined $1,500 for unlawfully destroying a beaver dam, according to a news release issued by the ministry on Wednesday.

The incident happened in 2013.

That’s when the ministry said Pacific Iron Ore contracted an excavation company to remove a beaver dam near Six Mile Lake Road so it could drill in the area. Breaking the dam caused the road to flood.

Ahh I love it when people get fined for removing beaver dams! Especially when they’re mininng companies! Apparently you can just send a contractor to rip out a dam and call it a day. It wasn’t a very big fine though. I’m sure the company made lots more than 1500 dollars after they got rid of the obstacle.

Goal for 2015? Bigger fines!

This story from Devon was even better:

OTTERY: Community rallies to back beaver appeal

The creatures’ plight has stirred residents into action and the Devon Wildlife Trust says it has received overwhelming support from local people in its efforts to ensure the family of rare animals is returned safe and sound after testing.

In recent weeks a renowned local wildlife artist has donated proceeds from the sale of a unique portrait to the trust, and youngsters across the parish have been learning about the animals and in school lessons.

The fundraising appeal was also given a high profile boost by TV wildlife presenter Chris Packham, who took to Twitter to highlight the appeal to his 112,000 followers.

Artist Emma Bowring, who was named among the finalists in the BBC’s Wildlife Artist of the Year in 2012, produced a one-off oil painting of one of the animals.

The portrait, titled ‘Eager Beaver’, was developed from a photograph taken at Escot, near Ottery St Mary.

Whoo Whoo! Go Devon! There isn’t anything better than a city protecting its beavers. We should know. I’m really starting to think those Devon beavers have a fighting chance. Oh and that Emma Bowring donation discussed at the end of the article is the SAME Emma who just donated to our festival. (Thanks Emma) Her painting drew 700 pounds, which is almost 1000 dollars which will be used for the court case to keep beavers. Great work Devon, and Emma. I’m sure her stunning sketch at the festival will be popular too!

As will this, just donated yesterday by Gene Sherrill. It’s called “Sunset at beaver pond” Check out those fallen trees in the center. What a heavenly view!

Gene is a talented photographer from Indiana. He’s sending it as a 24 x 36 canvas ready for hanging.Thank you Gene! And now we know there’s at least one beaver supporter in Indiana!

Finally, I happened to be hunting down someone who stole Cheryl’s photo without permission yesterday, and came across this which I found literally years ago but never saved and didn’t know how to find again. It is a stunning uncredited photo, and I’m going to guess its European in origin.

How could anyone NOT love an animal that does this with its young?

Here’s the thing…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers December 29, 2014

The first time I saw our beavers was walking with my father on the Marina Vista bridge in 2007. I was so excited I felt like alice looking through the doorway to another world. I have closely watched them for 8 years now. I have learned how they work and how they play. I know the sound they make when they want attention and the sound they make when they want to be left alone. I know they take time to make decisions, and I know that when dams washout they rebuild at their own pace. I have learned from watching other people watch beavers that it’s upsetting when dams get destroyed in monumental storms and I tell our friends in Napa or Nantucket or New York to have faith, and that beavers have their own logic for when to start building. I comfort people when they ask if the beavers have moved on, and I know that every year has its own challenges. I remember that beavers are hardy enough to be the first to recolonize Mt. St. Helen’s after the eruption and Chernobyl after the nuclear disaster. I know that having a safe place to live in what for them must be for them a very dangerous world is tremendously valuable, so that even if the beavers have to commute for their favorite dinner, it’s still worth it. I know all this.

But sometimes…when its been 36 days without a sighting and no signs of beaver activity at all, even I, possibly the most enthusiastic beaver cheerleader that world has ever known, who has spent going on 3000 mornings writing about beavers, who spends an entire year planning their party, even I get discouraged. What if they have finally moved on? No one stays for ever in one place. What if the washouts or lack of habitat finally pressured then to look for greener pastures? What if this is our post-beaver period?. Would we still have a festival with no beavers? Would I still maintain the website with no beavers? Would I still give talks about beavers without having any beavers? Would I stay here in this PB town and watch the mud wash away and the flow device rust or would I move in with our Napa friends? Or become a bitter beaver-less donut without a center forever more?

And then something happens.

That’s the secondary dam with fresh coyote bush across the top. And a curvy willow branch was eaten above the primary. So unless public works is eating branches and building dams at night, Martinez still has beavers. We still have beavers! Happy new year, Merry Christmas and we still have beavers! Someday, eventually. inevitably, we will get to the end of this glorious ride, but not today. Not yet. And you can guess how I feel about it.

And you thought you’d read it all…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Who's saving beavers now? December 26, 2014

Scottish beavers break tradition with wife-swapping

Beavers are known for their monogamy and mating for life.

But when two pairs were introduced to the wild west coast of Scotland, they let standards slip and promptly indulged in a partner-swap.

The five-year Scottish Beaver Trial was held in Knapdale Forest in mid-Argyll, and beavers remain in the area. Field operations manager for the trial, Roisin Campbell-Palmer, said: “During the monitoring period one of the interesting observations was that two pairs swapped partners.

“Beavers usually mate for life, however these were all young adults encouraged to form pairs either in captivity prior to release or at the release site after the loss of an original mate.

“When given the freedom to choose a mate on their own, they obviously preferred a different arrangement.

All of Europe is shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that beavers would rather pick their own life partner than let some skinny Norwegian tech assign one randomly for them. Hand them the smelling salts and the fainting couches. I, for one am not in the least surprised. First of all, how do we know this was wife-swapping? Beavers societies are matriarchal in structure, so wouldn’t it be better to call this a a case of “husband-swapping” instead?

Second of all, I remember Sharon Brown of Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife advising me once that Dorothy Richards had been surprised when a female beaver she wanted to have kits turned down the mate she introduced and picked her own. We can only wonder why. “His dams were uneven? He snored in the lodge? His Castoreum smelled funny?” We might never know. But we at least know this.

Beavers like to make their OWN decisions. (They are not unlike people in this regard.)

“This is actually a natural and positive outcome as animals selecting their own partners are shown to have strong pair bonds and higher reproductive rates.”

The beavers – who came from Norway – were obviously happy with their new companions because soon one of the pairs bred for the first time, and the other female was suspected of being pregnant, although no kits were ever seen.