Category: Beaver Rehabilitation

A collection of articles and videos on rearing orphaned kits.

The Great Canadian EcoFest!

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental, Festival, Friends of Martinez Beavers May 31, 2013

Congratulations to our hardworking friends in Kamoka where they are organizing their first-ever Great Canadian Eco-fest. Getting folks to pay attention, try something new, and put it in the paper is hard to do, so I couldn’t be happier for them.

“We wanted a large community event in Komoka, and tossed around a few ideas, but it was my wife who came up with the idea if an EcoFest,” said Steve Galinas. “She has been involved with animal rehabilitation groups and thought about organizing an event for those groups, but that is a very small niche so it evolved into eco-friendly”

The great Komoka eco-fest will be held at the community center (soccer fields) on sunday June 23 from 10-5. “We definitely hope this will be an annual event” Galinas said.

I tracked down Margaret last year when I first got wind of this. She told me that the inspiration came to her when she was listening to Adrian Nelson at Fur-Bearer Defenders talk about our Beaver Festival! We’ve been swapping ideas about whom to invite and how to make it kid friendly. Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary will be there to educate folks about living with beavers and why they’re good for the ecosystem. (You may remember that sanctuary was started by Audrey Tournay who was the first woman who showed that rehabbed beavers could be released in the wild. This video just brought tears to my eyes so I’m guessing you’ll enjoy it)

Say it with me now: small, small beaver world! Good luck Steve and Margaret! I wish we could be there, but you can bet we will in spirit! Send us photos.

And because I never get tired of arguing about Jim Sterba’s ‘kill ’em all’ manifesto…

Earth Island gets a letter

Shortsighted Solutions

In his book Nature Wars (reviewed by Jason Mark in your Spring 2013 issue), Jim Sterba fails to recognize that, often, nonlethal solutions to wild animal encroachments are both less expensive and more permanent than trapping. He never acknowledges that beaver flooding can be effectively controlled with flow devices, allowing the beavers to remain. Or that new colonies can be naturally discouraged using the beavers’ own territorial behaviors. He never admits that beaver-created wetlands promote fish, birds, and wildlife while raising the water table. I am saddened to see Earth Island Journal promote his book.

Heidi Perryman, Martinez, CA

P.S. I sent this as a special gift to Margaret’s frazzled email earlier this week, hoping it would buoy her spirit as it always does mine.

We wanted it natural…but not that much nature!

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, City Reports, Dispersal May 29, 2013

West Linn police trap beaver that moved into a front-yard water feature

West Linn police thought they were going to deal with a sick animal Saturday at a home along River Street. But when they found a feisty beaver had taken up residence in a front-yard water feature, it was a whole different ballgame.

“The animal wasn’t sick at all,” said Officer Mike Francis, West Linn police spokesman. “He was just being territorial, staking his claim to the water feature.”

Thank goodness this happened in Oregon and nothing TOO bad happened to this beaver but after reading these grim details I want to cross examine these witnesses.

. “Mr. Harper,” I’d like to say in a Perry Mason voice, “Could you describe for the court your intention in putting in this water feature?”

“We wanted the yard to look natural” he’d say casually, and I’d lean closer, knowing I had the judge’s full attention.

“So natural that a beaver might move in?” I’d invite, enjoying the murmur of the jury.

“No” he’d stammer. “We didn’t want beavers. We just wanted birds, well not the kind that eat the koi. No raccoons, no beavers no turtles, we just wanted it to look natural, but not that much nature!”

And in my mind this home-owner courtroom would gasp and nod knowingly, and that’s when I’d show the video, to make sure the jury saw things my way. A scared little beaver stuffed in a hole. A crazy home-owner without an eye-dropper’s worth of compassion. And a snotty, squealing boy named ‘Maverick’ of all things.

They’d be shaking their heads by the end, and even the officer I called as witness would blush a little. Now I’d show a nice video of the little woman Sherri Tippie live trapping a beaver, soothing it and gently releasing it into a broad stream.

“You deliberately built a feature that looked natural because you wanted your yard to appear natural. Should we blame this young beaver for taking you at your word? In all likelihood the beaver would have moved on anyway, but if he didn’t you could clearly afford to hire Ms Tippie to relocate him appropriately. Instead you monopolized the afternoon of two peace officers and who might have otherwise been busy saving lives or property.’

“The beaver in question was an adolescent leaving home for the first time. Doesn’t he deserve a gentler response to his independence than this? What kind of response should the world take for Maverick when he leaves home for college and winds up staying overnight in the wrong place?”

‘Mr. Harper, would you please take a look at the back of the flag and tell me what you see.”

“A beaver” he’d whisper.

” I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you. Could you say that again for the jury.”

“A beaver” he’d snap.”But if I lived in California I wouldn’t let a grizzly bear live in my yard either!”

I’d smile with the jury to show how un-intimidated I was by his argument. “No doubt!” I’d agree. “You’ve made it clear that you don’t want nature of any kind in your natural looking yard. No birds. No beavers. No raccoons. In fact, the only kind of nature you can tolerate at all apparently is human nature. And the lowest kind of that. Fear, ignorance, curiosity, disgust. That seems to be the only nature you can bear.” I’d turn my head and leave the witness stand.

“Your honor, I rest my case”.

In my fantasy home-owner courtroom beaver justice would be served. Mr. Harper would have to pay salary for the time he monopolized the police as his personal animal control unit, and the water feature would be donated to the state, which better understands how to live with nature. 5 girl scouts would sew fabric into that snare so that it didn’t cause internal bleeding the next time the police used it and staff from PAWS would come check on that little beaver just to make sure he’s okay.

Thank goodness! I’ve been waiting to use this graphic forever!

Womb-Raiders

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, kits, Who's Killing Beavers Now? May 16, 2013

li-baby-beaver[1] — CBC News Posted: May 15, 2013 3:18 PM CT Last Updated: May 15, 2013 5:35 PM CT This premature beaver kit was brought into the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre on Tuesday after a trapper removed it from its mother's womb. Three other kits that were also found had died. This premature beaver kit was brought into the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre on Tuesday after a trapper removed it from its mother's womb. Three other kits that were also found had died. (Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre)

The trapper discovered the four kits after killing the mother beaver, according to the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre which is caring for the young beaver. “He had trapped a beaver and then he killed it and noticed that its stomach was moving, so he cut it open and took out four baby beavers,” Reesa Atnikov, the centre’s supervisor, told CBC News on Wednesday.

What a humanitarian! St. Francis of the fur trade! So after killing the mother and three of its siblings, the trapper had the kindness of heart to take the trouble to slit open her belly and bring one gasping survivor for rehab. No word yet on whether he donated the sum he received for offing the beaver for the babies care. Gosh, this is such touching story, they should show it every Christmas.

The surviving beaver kit, which is about the size of a large baked potato, is receiving around-the-clock care and its condition is improving, Atnikov said.

No mention of the literally thousands of unborn kits that are killed every year when trappers take care of a ‘nuisance’ mom. The internet is literally strewn with photos of unborn kits because the monsters think its kind of cool to see them all tucked away and fully formed like that. Don’t worry, I know my audience and won’t share any. But trust me they’re out there.

Meanwhile, lets hope the baby does okay, that he doesn’t remember any of this or the butcher that delivered him. Also that the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Center has enough funding to pay for his ongoing care. You can help by donating here.

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And speaking of kits, Cheryl was out for our own kit-watch yesterday. She made a discovery that the streetside lodge was being generously mudded. And she snapped this, which should leave very few questions about where mom (and at least 1 newbie) is living at the moment!

mom teats — Mom beaver with teats: Cheryl Reynolds

It’s okay, the first time I looked I wasn’t sure I saw it either. Check between her head and foot on the right. That little brown thing hanging down means she’s got babies, (and not the unborn fileted kind either). that’s two years in a row mom has changed her mind about where to raise her baby. She seems very capricious! But there aren’t five beaver colonies in the world followed more closely than ours. For all we know it could be normal to have the baby one place, get it all messy, and move to a new abode?

At any rate, after two weeks of watching and waiting we can know for sure that it was dumb fool luck that got those first seconds of early footage. And that, for now at least, we should be looking for Junior in the pond by the primary! You can bet we’ll keeping hoping for more foolish luck in the future.

Caution: Cuteness Epidemic!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, kits May 5, 2013

This is from Wild Heart Ranch in Oklahoma, good friends of the Skunk Whisperer and all around remarkable humans. They have a hardy number of volunteers and young people working with them, and I’m always surprised to see what an amazing number of folks do right by wildlife in a state I don’t exactly associate with ecological stewardship. When I was a child we used to say that looking at adorable things gave you “teeth grits”, meaning I assume that you bit down that hard trying to stifle your involuntary ‘awwwww’. Pace yourself then, because these images they might make you crack a molar.

Not sure if I can make this work even if you’re not on facebook, but you should DEFINITELY click on the image below, and make sure you stay for the tail-curling finish.

Capture — Bottle feeding a kit: Wild Heart Ranch - Oklahoma

Did you see it? I love, love, love how the tail curls up at the end. It really gives you a sense of how important the unique appendage is to the beaver! One more thing, yesterday Worth A Dam was at a wildlife display at Wild Birds Unlimited in Pleasant Hill. We talked beavers and birds to lots of folks, but the most interesting was a man from Oregon who said that he loved to bring his scout troop to watch beavers. One day during a hard flood he saw a big log washing downstream – with two beavers riding on it!

What do you think, possible? Or impossible? I scoured the internet for such a thing but could find nothing, so I had to take matters into my own hands.

Team Beaver to the Rescue!

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation May 1, 2013

Please pass this on to everyone. I would hate to miss thanking anyone that has had a hand in helping to save these guys from the immediate threat. Sorry for the slow response. My day has been crazy in more ways than one.

I cannot express in words how grateful I am for everyone that has taken the time to help. I know that we would be in a very sad place right now if it weren’t for your efforts!

We have what I am considering small success for now. The division has agreed to give more time to get these little guys back to health. We will be given the opportunity to try to introduce the beaver to make certain that they will all get along. I think that we have, a least to some extent, opened their minds to the fact that young beaver under the age of two need an adult. They are not willing however, to entertain the idea that it if they are not all accepted by the adult that keeping them past 180 days is an option. They are still convinced that they will become too habituated to be released. So for now we are happy to have the extra time and hopeful they will all get alone a family unit. We will be continuing our effort to educate the division.

We are typing up some notes from the meeting and sending them to the division for them to look over to ensure that we agree upon transpired during the meeting. Once we get their approval of the notes we will share with you.

Thanks again

DaLyn Erickson

Executive Director

Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah