Last night there was the usual gathering of beaver supporters and interested folk at the dam. Familiar faces came because their hearts were saddened by the news of mom’s death, and had their hearts expanded by the cheerful antics of three healthy beaver kits. The bi-yearling came and did his parental circle of the dam, going over to do some mudding on the downstream side before returning to bring branches into the lodge. A turtle sat on his customary place on the flow pipe and a green heron fed from the filter upstream.
We were feeling pretty calm and settled with things when the yearling did a pass with a kit and seemed eager to go over the dam. After hesitating two or three times, he allowed the kit to ride on his shoulders and just SWOOPED him over the gap into the second pond. Kit Overboard! The wide world opened up for our hero. Suddenly the boundaries of their little world had dissolved. That kit paddled around the second pond a bit, sat on the pipe of the flow device and then decided that was quite enough exploration for one day, thank you very much.
His artless return is captured on the footage below. Clearly his sudden spasm of terror in midreturn is the best proof I have ever seen of beaver imagination. Nothing was chasing him. No loud noise caused his alarm. He just suddenly realized where the @#*%$ he was and it scared the beaver stuffing out of him.
Of course, once he had made the trip to the great beyond, his brother wanted to try it to. No longer was the primary dam a guardrail to keep all the baby chicks in the nest. Now it was a bridge to freedom. Like teenagers with new drivers licenses they popped over the dam just to show they could while the rest of us sat like the parents of teenagers with new drivers licenses and tried not to panic.
It’s a big world, and they need to explore it. (Sniff.)
