Beavers and Alligators

SACRAMENTO AUDUBON LEARNS ABOUT BEAVERS

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Educational December 5, 2019

Well, well, well The coolest thing about sitting in this prominently placed “Spiders Web” designed for catching beaver news is that the most amazing things come your way. First this announcement from Sacramento Audubon about their upcoming beaver presentation. You’ll never guess who’s sharing the gospel.

Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020
Effie Yeaw Nature Center
Assembly Room, 7PM
Come early to wander the grounds and bird or visit.

Topic: The Return of California’s Golden Beaver

Speakers: Greg and Alex Kerekez

Sacramento natives, Greg and Alexandria Kerekez spent the past 10 years in Silicon Valley helping to conserve threatened habitat and wildlife populations with documentary photography, education, and citizen science techniques. Their work aims to connect people to their environment and conserve California’s amazing ecologic diversity.

This January, they’ll present their experiences documenting The Return of California’s Golden Beaver. Historically, Beavers were almost extinct in California by the Gold Rush era. Today, they are returning to their ancient habitats, but not without controversy. Explore how these water saving critters benefit the environment and what we can do to support their restoration of California’s Ecosystems, and find a common ground.

In 2017, Greg and Alex returned to their hometown, Rancho Cordova, to start Rancho Roots Permaculture Farm. With their farming practices, they hope to provide examples of how to grow food sustainably. Creating bridges amongst neighbors using a combination of trade and market gardening is at the heart of their small business.

Now I know you might be saying to your self huh, who the heck are Greg and Alex Kerekes? Greg worked for years and years with Bill Leikam on the urban wildlife project following the foxes in San Jose. And Alex, well ,maybe this will jot your memory.

Fantastic news. Greg and Alex have started a progressive permacultue farm in the Rancho Cordova, I’m so glad to know they’ll be smart beaver friends in the area. Good luck Greg and Alex! Convincing Sacramento on beavers is a hard sell, but if anyone can do it, you can.

Okay, the other amazing thing, and truly the most amazing thing that I have waited my entire beaver life to see, comes from a new fan of Ben’s book, Kathy Rothman of northern florida. She sought me out on facebook to say she had beavers on her land and when I heard where she lived I just HAD to ask.

Any alligators there?

One of the great mysteries of beaver life is how beavers and alligators cohabit the same ponds and swamps. Think about it. Beavers are no match for the reptile which can swim faster, walk faster and hold their breath longer. I have friends who’s family members were EATEN by an alligator.

All I can think is that if you are an alligator in Florida there are LOTS of things to choose from. And sometimes you just don’t feel like beaver. Maybe its like traffic accidents. Sometimes you just get unlucky.

Or lucky as the case may be.

“Never intended to Hold Water”

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, New Species March 8, 2014

Busy beavers causing headache for HamCo school district

Jasper — The Hamilton County School District finds themselves in the middle of a beaver dam, so to speak.

What was first falsely diagnosed by an outside firm as a sinkhole on school district property at Hamilton County High School, is actually damage incurred by some busy little beavers, according to Chuck Lambert from General Services.

The beavers have been clogging drainage pipes and tearing up the ground, as well as causing a large hole in the pavement to open up. Because of the hole in the street that the school buses utilize for drop-offs and pickups of students, bus routes around the high school have been temporarily re-routed.

Click on the photo to go to a short film on the story. You might be asking yourself ‘how can beavers dig through asphalt’. Good question. Don’t worry, we answer questions around here. And I saw EXACTLY that hole first hand in my favorite beaver habitat on the border of Nevada. The beavers don’t touch the asphalt. But they dig out the dirt underneath it and when some lovely car (or school bus) drives over it the road crumbles. Where’s Hamilton county you ask? Brace yourselves. It’s in FLORIDA. As in lots and lots of these.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Great Blue Heron and Tail – Loop Road Everglades hp

I’m sure you can understand why the beavers would feel it necessary to build their own pond rather than use one that is already – (ahem) – occupied. (Look closely at the lower right corner.) ( I’m sure alligators eat birds and beavers from time to time, but mostly they can’t be bothered. (Maybe it’s like us driving on the freeway. Sure we know that some people get killed on every freeway every day, but we assume it won’t be us.)

The thing that gets me in that film is the emphasis on the article “Never being intended to hold water”. Obviously, if there’s a culvert, the presence of water was planned for in the original design. The beavers just made it less temporary. Apparently the ditch holds a little more water than your story?

I will write the school about how to install a culvert fence and use the whole beaver pond as a science project to monitor the changes it makes to their ditch, but honestly I’m not expecting many converts.

I miss seeing alligators occasionally. I like their knees. Very Kermit.

A Mystery

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental September 17, 2011

There’s a new “God Bless Trappers” article in today’s Augusta Chronicle out of Georgia. Fortunately the target Du Jour is alligators, but it does raise a question that has been much on my mind. How on earth do these species co-exist? Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida all boast a big enough beaver population that they go out of their way to kill them. But they also have plenty of ‘gator. Both species are semi aquatic neighbors who can hold their breath for more than 15 minutes. How can they possibly exist in the same area? It’s like having a serial killer in the middle of a playground.

“But it really has to be a good-sized alligator before it can take something the size of a beaver or a wild goose,” Parnell said. “They just aren’t the evil critter they’re made out to be. They really do a great job of cleaning up your pond.”

As always in times of question I turn to the experts. This is from Dietland Muller-Swarze’s chapter on predators that enjoy beaver.

Capture — Dietland Muller Swarze: Beaver Natural History of Wetlands Engineer

So during the summer – when there are tender kits to sample – the alligators move someplace deeper? In these southern states where there’s mostly droughts going on anyway in the summer? Permit me to doubt. Apparently its so much fun seeing if alligator eat beaver they get a grant to try it every few years. Here’s some earlier studies out of Mississippi.

Control for Nuisance Beaver Southeast United States (Vertibrate Pest Conference 1976)

Other approaches to beaver control have been or are currently under investigation. Among theseis evaluation of the American alligator [Alligator mississippiensis (Daudin)] as a potential predator. A preliminary study was initiated by the author in three fishing lakes near the Auburn University campus. Each lake contained one or more active beaver colonies and was stocked during thesummer of 1972 with an alligator at least seven feet in length. Observations were made to detectbeaver and alligator interaction. On one occasion a large alligator was observed to come half out of the water in an attempt to catch a beaver swimming on the surface. On another occasion, this same alligator was observed to have chased two beaver out of the water and onto the shore during mid day in July. The alligators were not known to have controlled the beavers in these ponds.

“Were not known to have controlled beavers in these ponds?” WTF does that mean? That’s one pretty passive tense for a research paper. All your grad students fell asleep at the same time and your not sure what happened to the beaver? You forgot to care? They were eaten but it wasn’t bloody enough to hold your attention? (Less you think I exaggerate, you are welcome to read the REST of the article where they experiment with painting guar gum trees with strychnine so that the beaver would be poisoned when they chew them.) And no I’m not kidding.

I, of course, should be pardoned for laughing aloud when I got to this part;

These studies were discontinued following reports from Florida of a human fatality and an increase in the number of reported alligator attacks on humans (Anon., 1975).

I guess its one thing to put a seven foot predator in a beaver pond to snack on the rodents, but its an entirely different thing when the nine-foot victor comes ashore looking for dessert. So the mystery of how beavers and alligators exist in the same space at the same time persists. The Lands Council Joe Cannon grew up in Florida so I thought he would at least be able to help me. Over dinner I asked him, “how do they do it?” He told me assuredly “They don’t”.

Except they do.

On the entire internet and all of youtube you will find zero pictures of these species side by side. You will find zero footage of alligator eating beaver and zero pictures of beaver swimming hurriedly away. I can’t understand it. I know alligators are active at night, at least during mating season, because I’ve heard them croaking away in the Everglades after the sun goes down. I know that beaver populations are still problematic in gator states because I’ve read article after article about how best to kill them in. How on earth does it happen that every single alligator hatched doesn’t eat every single beaver born?

Some where in the South is a hero who has stories or footage that would shed light on this mystery. Someone lives near a swamp with a beaver dam and has seen these animals side by side. I can only implore that they write me and let the rest of us know.

In the mean time, this is lovely and peaceful footage of one of the most magical places I have ever been in gator country. I hadn’t driven a quarter of a mile before my life list tripled in length.