Category: Beaver Rehabilitation

A collection of articles and videos on rearing orphaned kits.

THE JOY OF BEAVER DISCOVERIES

heidi08 Beaver ecological impact, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beaver-themed merchandise, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 17, 2019

How much do you love this photo and want to be this eager child unfolding the mysteries of a beaver pond for the first time or the twelfth time. Every morning I went down to see our beavers I felt just like this kid, Howard Carter at the edge of Tutankhamun’s tomb, on the verge of discovery. Thank you Betsy for sharing this image on the beaver management forum.

I’ve finally gotten to the part of my urban handout where I’m talking about various experiences of discovery. Judy Taylor-Atkinson of Port Moody wrote a beautiful piece for it that I thought I’d share. Remember to click on the image twice if the text is to small.

Isn’t that beautiful? The very definition of “Urban Wildlife bringing Social Cohesion”. Completely unlike this Utah city which is missing the forest AND the trees.

Park City Municipal Will Euthanize Trapped Beaver: Flooding And Damage From Dams On Poison Creek

Park City public works has hired a trapping service to capture and euthanize a couple of beaver that have built dams on the stream along the Rail Trail. Residents have complained to the city that the back up of water from a couple beaver dams is causing flooding and property damage.

Lots of beavers on NPR this week. I particularly liked this quote. He sounds almost sad.

On McCleod Creek, we have 13 pond levelers and these pond levelers are constructed to where the beavers will build a dam and we put a pond leveler in, and they quit building, so they don’t make it bigger and bigger. And the beaver does well, and we’ve been successful at those.” They use devices called pond levelers on McCloud Creek to encourage beaver habitat and dam building but Dayley says the ponds close to town on Poison Creek along the Rail Trail are too shallow. “

Remember the City Manager of Martinez told a resident that the KNEW about pond levelers but felt they wouldn’t work in Martinez. And uh, 11 years of safe beaver habitat says they were wrong.

Just saying.

Beaver friend Ulrich Messlinger sent me a copy of the new beaver book they are publishing in German “Entdecke die Biber” and wondered if I thought a translated version would be appreciated by American youth. I had fun reading it and told him yes of course. but couldn’t help sharing this one swiped image from it about beaver rehab. I have no permission to share this but couldn’t resist because I believe it is the sweetest beaver picture in the known world.

OH COME LET US ADORE HIM

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers April 3, 2019

This week has been bizarrely kind to beavers. First a glorious end-of-trapping article and now this? Someone up there must like us. Prepare to issue high-pithed squeal in 3-2-1:

Now I’m not surprised there are plenty of beaver orphans in Oklahoma, but it’s rather surprising that 1) some pipeline workers would stop and rescue her on their way home, 2) that someone is on hand with enough education to care for her so well and 3) that the news story correctly reports that the beaver is “Too buoyant to dive” instead of saying wrongly as they usually do that she can’t swim,

Orphaned baby beaver getting nursed back to health at Noble rescue

Wildcare Oklahoma needs lots of thank yous for taking on this little patient. Especially for the next couple of years. Also that’s seriously the cutest baby beaver footage I have ever seen, and believe me, that’s saying something.

Oklahoma’s native wildlife needs your support! WildCare is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the rehabilitation of injured and orphaned native Oklahoma wildlife. Without any government funding, everything that we provide for our patients including food, medication, housing, and professional caretakers, is funded through donations from caring individuals like you. WildCare is also a Combined Federated Charity #57195. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation today in support of our mission. Every contribution makes a difference to our wild neighbors who receive a second chance at freedom, and a new life. Thank you for your support!

You can donate to them here:

And for the grownups in the room, there’s more a more thoughtful discussion of beavers On Utah public radio, who revisited their earlier interview with Ben Goldfarb this winter. It’s one of his best because Utah asks all the right questions.

Revisiting The Surprising, Secret Life Of Beavers & Why They Matter With Ben Goldfarb On Access Utah

NEVER SAY NEVER

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Mike Callahan, Who's saving beavers now? March 29, 2019

Regular readers of this website might remember the story of Nevers park in Connecticut, where there was a plan trap the beavers once the freeze unfroze. There was ample outcry on the ground and I thought there might be enough public support to change the outcome. This morning I read this from Steve of Ct.

Some local success in South Windsor, CT. After promising not to, our head of parks had traps set for our beavers in a local park. Someone posted that on Facebook, I snagged a town council member on the way to their meeting, after which the mayor called me at home and we talked. This morning he called again to say the traps were being removed and he was calling Mike Callahan to schedule an assessment. Not a bad way to start the day!!!

And thus begins another urban beaver success story, only this time they only had to call in the expert from 30 miles away not 3000. The joys of living on the east coast eh? I sense great things for the beavers in Nevers Park. Good luck team, you are in great hands.

I also received a worried message message from our beaver-watching buddies in North Carolina in Pokeberry Creek, Apparently one of the yearlings hasn’t been using his right front paw and they are wondering whether to involve a rehabber.

Yup it definitely looks like its hurting. I’m asking some rehab friends for advice. But it’s a big deal to trap and take it to be treated, and my friend Lisa reminds me that casting is really hard with an aquatic animal. Since its a front paw on a beaver – and not all that important – I’d be inclined to make sure it has plenty of food within swimming distance and wait. But what do I know so we’re asking the experts.

Meanwhile there’s strangely beautiful story out of Utah.

School Board approves wetland, bike trail project near Jeremy Ranch Elementary

The land around Jeremy Ranch Elementary School will be getting a makeover in a few months as Summit County plans for a major construction project.

To accompany two roundabouts the county plans to construct in the spring, it will be restoring the wetlands around the elementary school and building a bike path for students. The Park City Board of Education approved the county’s Wetland Mitigation Plan and easements to create a new trail at its meeting last week.

Wonderful! Wetlands, elementary school, bike path, sounds perfect. What’s the weird part?

According to the county’s mitigation plans, it intends to reroute Toll Creek east of the culvert into a new channel. The county will then install beaver dams and berms and plant willow cuttings to slow down the stream so the wetlands can re-form. The idea is that flora and fauna that left the area when the wetlands dried up will return, Hauber said at the meeting.

“For the school, it gives an opportunity for outdoor science because they can go out and actually see a wetland,” Hauber said.

BEAVERS AROUND THE WORLD

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers and turtles March 11, 2019

You know a lot of wonderful things are said about beavers, that their ponds help salmon and frogs and water storage and remove nitrogen and fight fires BUT is it enough? Could there be more wonderful things said about beavers that we haven’t even begun to discuss? Are we hiding their bright beaver lights under a bushel?

Enter the blanding turtle.

The challenge of beaver dams in Blanding’s turtle habitat

I had no idea that destroying beaver dams threatened Blanding’s turtle survival. I must confess that I find beavers adorable, but I learned that they can cause serious headaches for landowners and municipalities that have dams on their property. That’s why NCC has come to their rescue with a series of awareness workshops to help ensure the survival of Blanding’s turtle.

Beavers build dams, which create wetlands, to increase their food resource area and protect themselves from predators. In addition to regulating, filtering and purifying runoff water, these wetlands are also useful for other species; they promote the nesting and feeding of waterfowl, and also benefit several types of fish, amphibians, reptiles and even some mammals. A few years ago, a study on the movement of Blanding’s turtle, a species designated threatened in Quebec since 2009, revealed that more than 90 per cent of their habitat is in ponds created, maintained or regulated by beavers.However useful they may be, these dams can suddenly give way, flooding land and infrastructure. This is why they are sometimes destroyed by local residents. The option of destroying dams, besides being effective only in the short term (since beavers will return to rebuild their dam if they find the environment favourable) is a threat to Blanding’s turtle’s survival.

This was explained during a presentation given by NCC biologists Milaine Saumur and Caroline Gagné in Clarendon, Outaouais, last fall. They discussed alternatives dismantling beaver dams, including preventative structures designed to protect culverts and the installation of a water level control system upstream of a dam.

Well,now that’s very interesting, but if this author believe that the only thing that makes landowners fear beaver dams is the threat of the potentially washing out, she isn’t being creative enough. As we know all too well. beaver dams are removed because people are afraid they won’t wash out, they’ll cause flooding, they’ll bring mosquitoes, they’ll block fish passage, they’ll cause an eyesore, and any other possible reason you an dream up in your head.

Blanding’s turtles were once common in much of Canada but are now endangered. They happen to be of interest in longevity research, as they show little to no common signs of aging and are physically active and capable of reproduction into eight or nine decades of life.

But now THAT’s interesting. Don’t destroy beaver dams and you have a chance to live and breed forever! Hmm, that might get some traction!

Beaver viagra!

Another great photo this morning from our favorite Austrian photographer,

Leopold Kanzler is such a talent. The beaver in this photo looks like a windswept James Dean gazing off into the sunrise. Obviously anticipating the delicious cottonwood leaves that await him, or his children as soon as he slips back into the water.

Oh how I miss those mornings of gleefully watching beavers!

A final wistful article from Canada which is even sadder when read with thoughts of our recent beavers failed rescue at Lindsey. I’m not sure if this hospital is more patient or just less practical.

A beaver tale: Here’s what happened after the Mounties found this guy at the mall

Hope for Wildlife has been caring for the animal, which likely has a head injury from a car crash It’s hard to picture a more Canadian start to a news story: the Mounties getting called out to help an injured beaver in a Lower Sackville, N.S., mall parking lot.

And yet there’s as much of our national spirit — that urge to help — to be found in the news of the beaver’s recovery.

Little Nacho, as his caregivers call him, is in rough shape. An injured tail, road rash on his feet and missing fur suggest he was hit by a car, according to the founder of Hope for Wildlife, the rescue group that’s treating him.

He’s also showing signs of a head injury.

”Head injuries do take a long time to heal, but that’s OK, we take whatever time is needed for these animals,” Hope Swinimer says. “We’ve got three others in now so we might actually match him up with one other young beaver.”

Sigh. Add that to the list. Apparently even Canadian beavers get better health care than we do. But at least it give me another reason to post one of my very favorite photos EVER.

You’re welcome.

BEAVER KITS LEADING THE WAY

heidi08 Beaver Rehabilitation March 6, 2019

Young beavers need to stay with their parents for around 2 years before they ‘disperse’ or go off to seek their fortune. That’s about a fifth of their life, which if we’re lucky enough to live to 90 and stay home only until we’re 18 is about equivalent. Maybe that’s why they seem so familiar to us. We know what its like to stick around the same place day after day.

Of course every so often we lose our family or one of our family, like Beatrice here. Robin sent me this video from a Kentucky rehab last night. Brace yourself because you’re about to say awwww very loudly. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

So fuzzy and such a tiny bent nose! Oh my stars and whiskers! “She will more than likely become an ambassador animal” Is about the worst fate anyone could imagine, but god knows they need a lot of beaver education in Kentucky. I suppose she’ll visit classrooms until she’s too big to lug in a pet carrier and then she’ll live in an outdoor cage maybe like Chompa at a kiddie zoo.

Ugh.

But maybe, we can persuade them that beavers matter enough to use her as an spokesperson for better fish and wildlife, fewer droughts and more birds. Hmm Kentucky? That’s where Ian’s from. Maybe they’d be interested in his why beavers matter stopmotion about beavers that won the science fair?

For some reason we’re back again to Oklahoma where that little beaver in Skiatook. I guess he wasn’t as young as he looked because he really would be dead by now if he was.

Nature Note: Beavers build dams in Skiatook

Beavers are fairly common in the Skiatook area and can be found along Bird Creek and on smaller streams and ponds.

The beaver is the largest rodent in North America. Rodents are gnawing mammals and all of them have continuously growing pairs of upper and lower teeth. The beaver’s teeth are large and are orange or chestnut-colored. Beavers are found in nearly all of Canada and the United States.

However, they were nearly trapped to extinction by the fur trade during the early 19th century when beaver pelts were the most valuable commodity in much of North America. Beavers that live along rivers and large streams make burrows in the bank whereas those living on ponds and lakes build lodges of sticks, grasses and mud.

Since the writer clearly uses the word lodges I have zero idea why the description in the photo says the beaver is “Building a nest”. He’s not a bird. And its impossible to imagine how building a cozy platform beneath him would provide any protection or safe exit back to the water. Still, it’s Oklahoma and the beaver is not yet trapped and that’s pretty amazing all by itself.

Beavers pair for life and the young stay with the parents for two years before leaving to establish territories of their own, usually in February or March.

Recently a young beaver showed-up on our pond. It made a winding, nearly two-mile trek from Bird Creek, following a draining system that passed through a small pond and three forks along the way.

Good luck Beatrice and Sooner state beaver! There’s a lot to learn and teach others on your way ahead.