Beavers are born to bite wood, not people

May 2013 by Simon Jones

The headline “beaver kills man” is not one you will see very often. It appeared recently after a wild beaver attacked and killed an angler in Belarus – an event that is both tragic and highly unusual.

Beavers are shy, nocturnal rodents, ungainly on land, that avoid immediate threats from natural predators or humans by quickly entering the water and swimming or diving to safety. If this means of escape is not open to a beaver and it is cornered, then, like many wild animals, it will attempt to frighten off its attacker or defend itself or its young with a sudden lunge and bite.

Beavers are herbivores that often feed on woody plants, so they have evolved powerful jaws and incisor teeth that can inflict deep puncture wounds should a person get too close to a stressed animal.

If accurate, the story from Belarus suggests that the beaver was cornered and fell back on its last line of defence, with fatal consequences for the man who approached it, reportedly to take a photo.

The world has become so entirely insane over the repeated Belarus story that this tepid defense from the leader of the woefully bureaucracy-laden Scottish beaver trial looks like something from a modern day Robert the Bruce – swinging into battle over the moors to defend his highland trial. No he never mentions that the story is a rerun and was exhaustively reported 6 weeks ago , and yes he inexplicably omits the part about the fisherman trying to pick UP the beaver for the photo. But any port in a storm, right?

Benefits of beavers

For the beaver, the last few decades have been a success story as ecologists increasingly recognise the benefits they can bring. Over-hunted for their high-value fur, both species of this tubby, spaniel-sized mammal were driven to the verge of extinction in many areas by the 19th century. However, the late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen a remarkable reversal in fortunes. Legal protection and numerous reintroduction schemes have allowed populations to rise dramatically in much, but not all, of their former ranges.

Beavers are a keystone species: the dams they build and the ponds they create help to improve biodiversity, because they provide the conditions for many other wetland species to flourish. Beaver dams can also trap sediment, pollutants and regulate water flow at times of flood or drought.

I’ve corresponded with Simon in the past about the illicit Tay beavers that refused to die and mucked things up for the proper beaver channels. His heart is in the right place but his head might be weighed down by suffocating meetings and research I think. I know one attendee sent him photos of our beaver festival a few years back but he apparently wasn’t tempted to try one of his own! I’m glad someone respectable wrote a hearty response to combat the increasingly terrifying headlines. (Yesterday I read ‘residents on edge as beaver population grows.’) But the well-meaning article goes on to make the apparently necessary effort to soothe folks by promising that if beavers create problems we can always kill them later. Which is an argument that never sits well with me.

In the longer term, culling and hunting to control populations are also important for ensuring that people and beavers can coexist. This can be a sensitive issue in countries where the animal is officially protected and there is public opposition to culling.

Yes, there is.

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Oh and in case you don’t recognize that beaming face behind all those medals, that’s Ian Timothy our beaver friend from Kentucky at his last EVER trip to Carnegie hall for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards National Ceremony. Day Shift won another gold, his entire portfolio of won a silver. He has been a winner every year for four years. He’ll be too old to enter again next year.