Category: Beaver Rehabilitation

A collection of articles and videos on rearing orphaned kits.

Beavery Update

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers, Educational, Environmental August 18, 2013

Barbara D. & her husband are friends of Megan Isadore of the River Otter Ecology Project, and came for the beaver festival. Afterwards she sent me a nice note appreciating the event and describing a gift she would send.

Yesterday, in my ongoing/vain attempts to reduce clutter, I chanced upon an article in Wild Earth for spring 2001 with the title “Abandonment –on Beaver Ecology and Recovery” (excerpted from a 1997 book by Tom Wessels: Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural Historyof New England). Although about beavers where winter means ( or used to ) a frozen time, I was taken by the tone and specificity, and thought I should ask if you’d like me to copy it for you:

I am sure everyone who becomes aware of your work, tries to find some way to express the gratitude and respect it engenders.

Thank you so much Barbara, and your feedback and kind words make me think three very distinct things, almost simultaneously.

You and your husband are very gracious people.
Megan has classy friends.
I can think of a few property owners in Martinez who, when they became aware of my work, expressed and continue to express a different sentiment entirely.

With that out of the way, lets open the present! This is a chapter from Tom Wessels book “Reading the Forest: A Natural History of New England”. Tom is one of the founding voices of Antioch University in New England, where he remains a professor emeritus.”As a terrestrial ecologist I consider myself a generalist with interests in forest, desert, and alpine ecosystems, geomorphology, evolutionary ecology, and the interface between landscape and culture. Although my graduate training was as a research ecologist, my avocation is to teach which I do through my courses at Antioch, my books, and the numerous public workshops I conduct each year.”

Now that you know the source, enjoy.

I have uploaded the chapter here Abandonment: On Beaver Ecology and Recovery and if it whets your appetite, help mollify my transgression of copyright law and go buy the book here. With a few sales and a good word, I might get off with time served.

(And if you think I’ve been watching too much OITNB you’d be right, and I can honestly say you should be too.)

Last night was crowded with visitors at the beaver dam, including the teacher who first spied our new kit last year and some wildlife workers from Hayward we met years ago. Our beavers very kindly did not disappoint, and we happily saw all three kits and Jr from last year milling about the dam. It was nice to show folks how tidal everything was, because when we arrived the dam was starkly outlined, towering above the water, and by the time we left it looked like a submarine.

At one point all three kits were out at the same time but sadly outside of the camera frame width. After they left we looked at each other anxiously and thought, “Did one seem bigger than the other two?” and “What does that mean if it didn’t?”

As far as I can figure there are three possibilities….

One was bigger but we just couldn’t see it.
The other two have caught up in size and the difference is no longer as marked
OR we actually have FOUR kits and the bigger one was missing!

If you are never sure about size differences, this might help. The beaver on the dam is Jr who was born last year, and the beaver swimming up is one of our new kits.

They were out by 6:45 and still there when we left. All in all, it was a good beaver night, including the adorable family of raccoons that shuffled through the scrape. Although when I got home I saw Cheryl had shared this on facebook and I realized all my video efforts were for naught. This is from Farasyn Farm Wildlife Rescue and facebook wouldn’t let me embed it here so I downloaded and sneaked it on our youtube account so you could see. Two crimes in one day, but oh so worth it!

Baby steps

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Environmental, pictures August 8, 2013

Baby beaver off to make friends in Ontario

An orphaned baby beaver who was found on a walking trail in rural Manitoba was being flown to its new home in Ontario on Wednesday. An air charter service was flying the beaver pup from Winnipeg to Peterborough, Ont., so the animal could be rehabilitated.The Aspen Valley Rehabilitation Sanctuary, which already houses seven beaver cubs, said its current residents would provide much-needed companionship for the new arrival.

Baby beaver on an airplane? Good luck little guy! I hope that when AVRS is all done taking care of him they sit that reporter down and explain that we don’t call baby beavers CUBS. Sheesh!

More killer beavers were brought to my attention by Mike Callahan. Pretty soon beaver movies are going to be their own genre.

Our own baby beavers are doing well as you can see. It is much better when they’re not orphaned to begin with. They need family members to learn how to be a beaver, and even how to groom themselves, And if you don’t think kits are spoiled check out this photo Ron got of our little tyrant hoarding treats for himself and reminding Junior very politely to piss off.

It looks like we don’t have a single beaver kit with conjunctivitis this year which is excellent. Although guess who came down with it after the festival? Must have been all those kids! Thank goodness I had the week off to recover. Throwing a party for 2000 people takes something out of your immune system apparently. I was comforted to find this accurate representation of my current functioning this morning.

And then there were three?

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, Educational, Environmental July 16, 2013

Close Family — Adult and kit – Cheryl Reynolds

Last night Lory and Cheryl were enjoying beaver-july. Cheryl was at the primary and Lory was at the footbridge and they were watching for kits and photo opportunities. Lory picked up the phone and said, “Okay we have two down here eating blackberries” and Cheryl answered and said “What? I have one up here with an adult!”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, makes three.

Which isn’t impossible, but sure comes as a surprise. We usually figure out the number of kits by the first week, but I guess that’s because they have a stable residence and we know where to look. This year they seem to be dividing their time between the bank hole by the footbridge and the one by the primary, depending on how high the tide gets. The good news is that they’re all healthy and happy. God knows when we’ll ever get the whole family together for a photo, but until we do, enjoy this.

two and adult - Cheryl Reynolds — Two and adult – Cheryl Reynolds

This morning I got a surprise email from Bob Armstrong of Juneau. He’s the remarkable photographer behind the Mendenhall Glacier Beavers book, and gets the credit for my favorite beaver dam photo of all times, which remains my screen saver 5 years later.

Beaver dam at Mendenhall Glacier: Photo Bob Armstrong

Seems he is trying his hand at video. He sent me a very large file which I managed to upload to Youtube. Notice how big that log is and how little that beaver is. Every time he tries to dive with it he floats up. He can’t be a year old. Make sure you stay for the soundtrack that starts at 1.20, and think about this the next time you feel like giving up.

And just between you, me and the lamp post, Cheryl has been working hard with a team from San Jose who has been trying to rescue the mother beaver that appears to have something around her middle. Trash? Cord? We don’t know for sure, but it is restricting her movements and doesn’t look good. Channel 5 was there when they were trying to live trap last night, so it will be all over your TV soon. No luck rescuing mom yet, but we have the very best minds at work getting her safe again. Stay tuned.

Fascinating beaver friday…

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions June 28, 2013

Lots of good beaver news to get to this morning. Yesterday the Gazette very kindly ran my press release for the beaver festival in its entirety

Beaver Festival draws film crew from Washington

Six years after the Martinez beavers captured the attention of the Bay Area and challenged the city to try something new, the dramatic story continues to generate interest.

Just ask Semester in the West, a multi-disciplinary program at Whitman College that closely follows ecological and political landscapes. They were interested in the regional drama of the Martinez beavers. Sarah Koenigsberg, of Tensegrity productions, will bring a team of students to film the festival as part of her ongoing documentary, “The Beaver Believers.” The team will travel to Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah before stopping in Martinez, to look at some fairly famous urban beavers.

Go read the whole thing. Thank them for the coverage and see if you can ‘spot the compliment!’

Now there’s this delightful article from Michael Luntz of Canada who I connected with through Donna Dubreuil of Ottawa and found out he is about 6 months away from publishing a book of his 25 years observing and photographing beavers. His pictures graced the Beaver Whisperers Documentary which aired in Canada this March and will show in America later this year.

Beaver ponds are excellent habitats for seeing animals

Moose visit beaver ponds to acquire their sodium fix.

During my search, I encountered no fewer than eight Beavers and 14 Moose. Most of the Moose had shed their winter coats and looked quite sleek. The bulls were sprouting new antlers (these fall off every winter and grow anew in the spring) covered in velvet, soft skin that feeds blood to the bone growing beneath.

These huge animals were wandering into beaver ponds to feast on new aquatic growth. This food does not provide a lot of nourishment but is a rich source of sodium, an essential nutrient that Moose lack almost completely in their winter diet of dry twigs and coniferous needles. The sodium they glean is stored in the rumen of their stomach, and is used through the rest of the year. There were many other creatures active in the ponds I visited. Hooded Mergansers, Ring-necked Ducks, Mallards, and American Black Ducks were present, one Mallard was already leading around her ducklings.

Nice. The end of the article says he’s off to Norway to watch Castor Fiber so I of course asked if he was meeting Duncan Haley and he wrote back that Duncan has been enormously helpful but will be 8 hours away! I’m looking forward to his castor fiber photos and wonder if he’ll see the difference like I think I can?

BTW can’t you just imagine the city council’s face if moose showed up at our beaver dams?

Now you’ve been very good this week and deserve this. Click for major AWW action and donate here.

Dozens of wild animals rescued from deluge

I’ve been good too, so I deserve to be rewarded by sharing this story which made me laugh out loud. It obviously required a graphic.

Beaver blamed for disrupting Taos cell, Internet service

Ha ha ha. How does a beaver knock out cell and internet service? Excessive beaver bandwidth?

Obviously the service reps at TAO Cell graduated from the SAY ANYTHING school of telecommunications.

After offering conflicting explanations about what severed a fiber optic cable east of Eagle Nest, CenturyLink representatives now say the 20-hour cell phone and Internet outage last week was caused by an over-eager beaver chewing through the line.

Thanks guys, that goes in the scrapbook. Beavers blamed for flooding, fires, mosquitoes, disease and now service blackouts. Perfect.

Ecosystem Services

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Creative Solutions, Environmental June 23, 2013

Nature’s Benefits: The Importance of Addressing Biodiversity in Ecosystem Service Programs

Defenders of Wildife (who in addition to making a HUGE difference, was kind enough to donate 200 copies of their magazine on Sherri Tippie for our last festival) has a fantastic paper on ecosystem services and how we should factor the services of wildlife when discussing what to do. I mention it because you-know-what provides excellent ecosystem services, and is offered as their final case study in Yellowstone.

The recovery of the ecosystem is still in the early stages. (Ripple and Beschta, 2012). However, beaver activity has the potential to provide the following benefits:

• Reduce water temperatures and improve habitat foraquatic organisms.

• Improve habitat for fish by providing a source ofdetritus and woody debris.

• Increase riparian plant diversity and songbird habitat.

• Increase waterfowl, amphibians, reptiles, muskrat and river otter populations.

• Reduce excess amounts of sediment and organic material in surface runoff.

• Reduce steam bank erosion.

• Increase carbon storage in plant biomass and soils.

• Recharge the water table, increase water storage and wetland acreage (Gilgert and Zack, 2010)

Nicely done! The beavers in Yellowstone are getting some excellent press, that’s for sure. Lets hope there’s a interpretive ranger on hand that is equally committed to showing off flow devices too. You can check out the entire report online here.

Beavers: Wetlands and Wildlife posted this video yesterday of their annual meeting in April. It’s a presentation performed by their intern Susan Hendler. Enjoy!

And today is the auspicious occasion of the very first EcoFest in Komoko Ontario! Aspen Valley Sanctuary will be on hand to talk beavers with lots of other displays and vendors. We wish everyone a sunny, festive, well-attended exhaustion of a day!