Credit: UT Jackson School of Geosciences/ National Center for Health Statistics/ USDA Forest Service.
A new species of ancient beaver that was rediscovered by researchers in The University of Texas at Austin’s fossil collections has been named after Buc-ee’s, a Texas-based chain of popular travel centers known for its cartoon beaver mascot. The beaver is called Anchitheriomys buceei, or “A. buceei” for short. Steve May, a research associate at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences, said that the beaver’s Texas connection and a chance encounter with a Buc-ee’s billboard are what inspired the name.
May is the lead author of the paper that describes A. buceei, along with another, much smaller, species of fossil beaver. Published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica, the paper provides an overview of beaver occurrences along the Texas Gulf Coast from 15 million to 22 million years ago based on bones and archival records in the UT collections.
While driving down a highway in 2020, May spotted a Buc-ee’s billboard that said “This is Beaver Country.” The phrase brought to mind the Texas beaver fossils he had been studying at UT’s Texas Vertebrate Paleontology Collections.
“I thought, ‘Yeah, it is beaver country, and it has been for millions of years,'” May said.
A. buceei lived in Texas about 15 million years ago. To the casual observer, it probably wouldn’t have looked much different from beavers living in Texas today, according to study co-author Matthew Brown, the director of the Jackson School’s vertebrate paleontology collections. However, one key difference is size. A. buceei was bigger—about 30% larger than modern beavers—though still much smaller than the bear-size beavers that lived in North America during the last Ice Age.
The UT collections includes A. buceei fossils from six Texas sites. But most of what researchers know about the new fossil beaver comes from a unique partial skull from Burkeville, Texas. The fossil is a fusion of bone and brain cast that was created when sediment naturally seeped into the beaver’s brain cavity eons ago, creating a rock replica of the brain as the specimen fossilized.
See the rest of the article. And there is another bit of news on PHYS-ORG that might lessen concerns about the greenhouse gas produced in wetlands.
Annual mean near-surface air temperature response to methane, decomposed into (a) longwave and shortwave effects; (b) longwave effects only; and (c) shortwave effects only. Credit: Robert Allen/UCR
Most climate models do not yet account for a new UC Riverside discovery: methane traps a great deal of heat in Earth’s atmosphere, but also creates cooling clouds that offset 30% of the heat. Greenhouse gases like methane create a kind of blanket in the atmosphere, trapping heat from Earth’s surface, called longwave energy, and preventing it from radiating out into space. This makes the planet hotter.
“A blanket doesn’t create heat, unless it’s electric. You feel warm because the blanket inhibits your body’s ability to send its heat into the air. This is the same concept,” explained Robert Allen, UCR assistant professor of Earth sciences.
In addition to absorbing longwave energy, it turns out methane also absorbs incoming energy from the sun, known as shortwave energy. “This should warm the planet,” said Allen, who led the research project. “But counterintuitively, the shortwave absorption encourages changes in clouds that have a slight cooling effect.”
This effect is detailed in the journal Nature Geoscience, alongside a second finding that the research team did not fully expect. Though methane generally increases the amount of precipitation, accounting for the absorption of shortwave energy suppresses that increase by 60%.
Both types of energy—longwave (from Earth) and shortwave (from sun)—escape from the atmosphere more than they are absorbed into it. The atmosphere needs compensation for the escaped energy, which it gets from heat created as water vapor condenses into rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
“Essentially, precipitation acts as a heat source, making sure the atmosphere maintains a balance of energy,” said study co-author Ryan Kramer, a researcher at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Methane changes this equation. By holding on to energy from the sun, methane is introducing heat the atmosphere no longer needs to get from precipitation.
Additionally, methane shortwave absorption decreases the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth’s surface. This in turn reduces the amount of water that evaporates. Generally, precipitation and evaporation are equal, so a decrease in evaporation leads to a decrease in precipitation.
“This has implications for understanding in more detail how methane and perhaps other greenhouses gases can impact the climate system,” Allen said. “Shortwave absorption softens the overall warming and rain-increasing effects but does not eradicate them at all.”
. . .
Scientific interest in methane has increased in recent years as levels of emissions have increased. Much comes from industrial sources, as well as from agricultural activities and landfill. Methane emissions are also likely to increase as frozen ground underlying the Arctic begins to thaw.
Regardless of our contribution to the atmosphere, as the first article shows, we beaver folks have been at this for a very long time. It’s your recent behavior that’s causing the problems! Check out the report.
Day four of “Project Habituation” and as predicted it was the most successful yet. Two beavers and several visits by dad working on the lodge. Even mom was seen (larger) shaking her head and feeding. Nothing while it was bright enough to film so mostly we were eagerly watching a bunch of this:
But still. Much better than the start and I’m sure if the project had days 5,6, and 7 we’d be happier still. Dream on! I’m just lucky I got Jon to ever agree to this brief insanity and won’t push my luck.
(Yet.)
We were still thinking about our slow improvements and micro-curve of success when Rusty Cohn’s photos arrived from last night. Of course beavers, and of course beautiful. Talk about the grass being greener! Still scratching his mosquito bites and hunched from lack of sleep Jon cursed at the computer screen before grumbling back to bed.
“fuckingnapa fuckingtopia!“
In addition to the enviable beaver photos, I particularly like that capture of the green heron doing his odd neck stretch. The birds are so twisted and stump-necked I never would have thought it possible if I hadn’t seen this a few years ago. Apparently beaver ponds are the gift that keep on giving.
It was lovely to come across this article about the talents of someone we know. Suzi deserves every bit of attention she gets, and we’re very lucky that she lives in the area.
Petaluma-based wildlife photographer Suzi Eszterhas is living her dream.
The 39-year-old animal enthusiast graduated from a childhood spent observing squirrels and birds in her backyard to photographing jaguars in Brazil and traveling around the globe documenting the lives of animals while sharing a message of conservation with future generations.
“Basically, I worked my whole life trying to make a career in wildlife photography,” the Marin County native said. “I knew as a child what I wanted to do. I’ve never really known a life with any different goals.”
Eszterhas has been published in more than 100 magazine covers and feature stories, including Time and Smithsonian magazines and BBC Wildlife and she’s earned recognitions in prestigious contests including Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Environmental Photographer of the Year competitions as well as the National Wildlife Photo Contest, but it’s not the fame that’s important to her, she said.
What a great article! I’m so happy that we got to cross paths! Suzi is smart enough to have worked her whole life to make a living doing what she loves, and she deserves this kind of article from her home town.
Though she’s done work internationally, Eszterhas, who moved to Petaluma about a year and a half ago, has also been active locally, documenting the Ninth Street Rookery in Santa Rosa, a median on a city street where birds nest, and the Tulocay Beaver Pond in Napa, where beavers established a home in a creek near a large hotel, she said.
But not a mention of US??? The original urban beavers? Your friends who told you about the beaver pond in Napa and took you there in the first place? No mention of sitting all those nights on the bank eating pad thai out of a box and enjoying the best beaver sightings you will EVER see?
Napa didn’t give you a shirt, Suzi, sheesh!
Well as it happens I was sent some other lovely Napa photos this morning, and the timing couldn’t be better to share them. These are burrowing owls at the nearby golf course, and Rusty says it’s what photographers do in the winter when beavers are hard to see. I just think it’s pretty fortuitous that we’re seeing these on SUPERB OWL SUNDAY! For reasons best understood only by me, I especially love the grumpy one.
Wake me up when it’s over. Photo by Rusty CohnNow what is he looking at? Photo by Rusty Cohn
Nice work Rusty. I was staggered the first time I saw owls living in the ground like feathered hobbits. Rusty was even lucky enough to catch a photo of the architect and tenant side by side. So I couldn’t resist playing a little.
Today’s conservationists are by no means the first people to wonder if it might be a good idea to bring beavers back to these shores. In the course of investigating Scotland’s colourful beaver history, nature writer Jim Crumley travelled to Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, where, in the 1870s, John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute, apparently conducted an early beaver experiment. Delving into the Mount Stuart archives, Crumley found that in 1874 the Marquess had a walled, four-acre beaver enclosure built on his property with a stream running through it and plenty of trees to serve as raw material for dams and lodges. This he proceeded to populate with Canadian beavers, which he purchased at £10 a pop from one Charles Jamrach, a naturalist based in London.
After a brief period in which they appeared to flourish, by 1889 the Bute beavers were no more.
This book, then, is a passionate argument for letting beavers carry out their ancient role in our landscape, as creators of wetland habitat that will benefit other animals and promote biodiversity for centuries to come. As Crumley puts it, the beaver is “an architect that designs, redesigns, restores, and recreates wildness. For nothing. Forever.” Counter arguments will no doubt be made, but not as eloquently.
This sounds like a fascinating read, and I just bought my copy. I love the history of beavers being introduced by the Marquess. And love the urgency which which he advocates reintroduction now. I also haven’t ever read a book about castor fiber, as all big guns are about our canadian beavers. This should be fun!
Yesterday I read they were fogging for west nile virus at the marina. Something they had already done in July. Were the chemicals they used possibly impactful for beavers? For that matter, could beavers die from West Nile Virus? Horses, dogs and cats apparently do.
The vet at fish and game asked a colleague about the chemicals. She wrote back that It was Pyrocide, active ingredient pyrethrins. It has a very low toxicity to mammals. So probably not. Hmmm. it was worth considering though.
No new deaths, and we’re still walking the creek every day to just in case there are bodies. Let me know if you can help.
On Thursday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife released photos of five wolf pups with a pair of adults, one of them thought to be the wolf seen in the spring. It is the first confirmed sighting of a gray wolf pack in modern California history.
California should be very happy to have wolves! 5 pups documented from our very own golden state pack. Which brings our resident wolf population to 7. (For those following along at home, California hasn’t had wolves since 1924.) Now I know what you’re thinking. “Hey, this is a beaver website, why should I care?” But wolves are the single most important helper that beavers have in restoring streams. See, the beavers chew the willow, to make their dams, and the trees coppice, but before the beavers can get back to eat them, ungulates like deer and elk and cows come chomp the shoots. And that’s not good for creek restoration.
But when we have a healthy wolf pack in residence, it forces the deer and elk (and cows) to stay away from the open creeks and they browse more cautiously, meaning that the willow gets a chance to grow up and the beavers get to fell and feed and build more dams and save more water.
And California reaps the benefits. Happy wolf-day, California!
The Daily Mail lists no credit for this photo, but doesn’t his hair look a lot like our Dad beaver? Maybe it’s an older adult grooming trick.
Campaigners hail beavers reprieve
Natural England said the trial in Devon, which could include introducing other breeding pairs of beavers if they are needed to ensure the genetic diversity of the population, would inform future decisions on releasing beavers in England.
The conservation organisation said the unauthorised release of beavers remains illegal and it does not expect to grant any other licences for releases during the five years of the trial.
Stephanie Hilborne, chief executive of the Wildlife Trusts, said: ” It is wonderful to hear that the first breeding population of beavers in England for hundreds of years is going to be allowed to remain in the wild.
“We know that we can’t bring back all the great animals that the country’s lost – at least not everywhere – but where it is feasible, we owe it to future generations to do so.”
Friends of the Earth campaigner Alasdair Cameron said: ” Beavers add to Britain’s rich natural heritage and can bring huge benefits to the local environment, such as boosting wildlife and reducing flooding risks.
“Thanks to the hard work of thousands of individuals and organisations, our number of native species just increased by one. The next stage is to get the beavers tested and then returned to the River Otter where they can now swim in peace.”
Borrowed from the facebook page of a UK beaver supporter
Congratulations! The good news about Devon is all over the internet(s). I am thrilled that the mysteriously-appearing beavers are going to be allowed to stay, and that they will receive a 5 year study period in safety. The Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Mail all boast triumphant stories this morning. I can only imagine what the sullen angler community looks like tonight, but I’m sure beaver supporters met in gatherings much like this:
Now a quick reminder from our sponsors in Georgia that if you’re going to use explosives to blow up a beaver dam, you should really tell your neighbors, first. No, seriously.
People hear loud booms in their neighborhoods and want to know what they are coming from. It happened again Wednesday.
Investigators often say those booms are landowners blowing up beaver dams. That is the explanation residents near the Dougherty-Lee County line in the Callaway Lakes area got Wednesday
” But what they need to understand is very seldom does blowing up the dam make the beavers move. If they like the dam if they like that location and like where that dam is, chances are within a weeks time they’ll probably just build the dam back,” said Ben Kirkland
“I’m glad to know what it is., “said Nancy Lawrence.
Lawrence now wishes those who blow up a dam would notify residents in the area beforehand.
“you know a paper in your paperbox or on the flag of your mailbox. Just to know what it was, that would’ve been nice,” said Nancy Lawrence.
Yes it would be so much more polite to let your neighbors know before you explode a family down the street. I guess just cutting off the tails and collecting the bounty makes less noise. (Shudder)
Yesterday we got some new photos from the Napa beaver dam from Rusty Cohn with an exciting new species. The little visitor very kindly posed by a mallard to show us just how small she was. This is a female bufflehead, these ducks are actually usually only seen in bays and lakes. The ducks are great divers and spend at least half their time under the water devouring aquatic insects. Lucky for her there will be lots to chose from at the beaver pond.
Female Bufflehead in Tulocay Creek, Napa By Rusty Cohn 1.27.15
See the rest of the article. And there is another bit of news on PHYS-ORG that might lessen concerns about the greenhouse gas produced in wetlands.
