This could be highly addictive. I just heard from one of the US Forestry workers who was involved in our beaver research paper and she pointed to this website in the Tongass National Forest in Juneau. It has a web cam inside a beaver lodge. The first couple times I looked at it I just saw grainy emptyness and sticks. But this morning there was a lense-full of breathing beaver fur – one of the residents was sitting on the camera!
After he or she moved aside a bit, a youngish beaver could be seen dragging a reed around to make its bed, and then butt-beaver nudged aside a bit more dragging a lovely flat tail past the camera. It’s actually still visible on the lower right hand side of the camera as I type this. I guess its not much of an invasion of privacy, although maybe one beaver is assigned to sit on the camera while the others do the really fascinating things. “Okay Bob, its your turn again”. The temperature in Juneau is 26 degrees today with nighttime lows of 16. The water must be frozen if not freezing. Maybe its still the temperature where a strong beaver can break up the ice and get to the surface, but they’re definitely headed for their long winter underground.
After the tail dragged across the rest of the screen, its owner turned and did a little grooming. See the head on the lower right hand side, paws curled around a bit of reed? Oh this is bad. Not only will I be tempted to watch this in the mornings I will sit there with my finger poised on the ‘print screen’ key just in case they do something cute! Good luck Tongass beavers. Its apparently already colder than usual. I hope you have lots of food stored.
