Tag: Cheryl Reynolds

‘Tis the season

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers, Beavers elsewhere August 8, 2014

Keefer Madness: Otter Attacks vs. Beaver Attacks

BOSTON (CBS) — Rich Keefe is out to make sure we’re all safe when we step into nature.

He’s warned us about not one, but two different beaver attacks over the summer, and he has another animal to add to the ferocious predator list.

This time, it’s a North American river otter who is taking aim at the human race. An Otter in Washington state put a little boy and his grandmother in the hospital, and that same otter is believed to be responsible for attacking another man.

The cute little otter wasn’t very cute,” Radek Bazant told Q13Fox in Washington.

The otter in question popped the man’s raft and then attacked him underwater as he swam away.

The North American river otter can grow to be 21-31 lbs, much smaller than it’s beaver counterpart, notes Keefe.

Gosh, which would you be more afraid of? Both are so maliciously terrifying. I can’t believe I’ve been so lucky all these years, standing with a camera on the bank. While those monsters lurked just inches away.Click on the image to go to the site where you can listen to his fairly amusing riff on the subject. Even though he’s wrong about how long beavers live, I have to agree with Keefe on this. If you’re going to be afraid of any vegetarian I’d have to pick the beaver.

Peg legs notwithstanding.

Since we have all read the attack stories of summer for many years, they hardly surprise me anymore. I have to admit this was a bit of a shock, though. Check out the photo on the story from Austria.

Maybe not as cute as he looks? Photo: Cheryl Reynolds/Worth a Dam

Family attacked by beaver whilst paddling

A swimming trip in Schwechat, Lower Austria took a nasty turn for a family when they were attacked by a vicious beaver.

Presumably because it was defending its territory or its young, the beaver attacked a woman and her two daughters, along with their pet dog, whilst they were paddling in the Schwechat river.

Even when they ran out of the river and onto dry land it pursued them and bit their dog, taking a chunk of fur.

Since that beaver took a chunk of fur and not the dog’s femur (which he easily could have) I’m going to assume he wasn’t exactly in a rage. It was more of a “AND STAY OUT” beaver hrmph. Which certainly happens. I was shocked to see Cheryl’s lovely photo in Austria, but at least she got credit.

All in all, beavers look pretty dangerous. I’m not surprised. They certainly took a bite out of the unchecked powers in this town!

Beavers at Chernobyl

heidi08 Beaver Behavior, Beavers elsewhere, Environmental May 6, 2014

Duane Nash alerts us to this amazing documentary called “Radioactive Wolves” which aired on Nature PBS in October. It’s about wildlife returning to the former Chernobyl nuclear plant radioactive zone. Guess what species is doing the really heavy lifting? If you remember the speech from Leonard Houston at the State of the Beaver Conference I reprinted here, you won’t be surprised. The power plant was built in a region that was once forest and marshland, and then was reclaimed for crops with canals to feed the population. You’ll never guess how things are working out. Watch until at least 16:00.

Leonard began with

“Within this strangely pastoral setting the animals go about their business, sometimes finding uses for what we’ve left behind. The wolves rise up on their hind legs to peer through the windows of houses, looking for routes to the rooftops, which they use as observation posts for hunting. Eagles build nests in fire towers. Deer, elk, bison and wild horses flourish in abandoned farm fields.

As to the beavers, they have shown an amazing resiliency to some of the worlds most cataclysmic events, in large surpassing sciences understanding of what we call sustainable habitat. Beavers, forced out decades ago when the landscape was engineered for collective agriculture, have already undone much of man’s work converting polluted swamps to free flowing rivers and restoring one of central Europe’s great marshlands.”

I love the shot of the watershed teaming with life, and the long list of species that beavers help. It almost makes me feel like the planet will carry on just fine if we only get the pesky humans out of the way. There is also a good segment on radioactive wolves that you can watch later. Right now we need to talk about this wonderful article discussing the final stages of the Knapdale project.

Something to chew over: will beavers be reintroduced to Scotland?

The Scottish Beaver Trial is a unique and exciting conservation project and if it is a success, beavers could once again become a common sight in our countryside. Caroline Lindsay finds out more.

But how has this reintroduction gone down with the general public? Beavers are known to benefit the environment in many ways: as tree felling, dam building champions, they are what’s known as a keystone species — one which affects the survival and abundance of other wildlife in the community in which it lives.

Beavers create ponds and wetlands, which attract other species such as frogs, toads, water voles, otters, dragonflies, birds and fish, and even help improve water quality. In woodlands, beavers help to stimulate new growth by gnawing on tree stems and coppicing. This helps to breathe new life into tired forests and creates a diverse age range of trees, which greatly benefits woodland management.

That said, a recent YouGov poll has found that 60% of us support the project.

Simon Jones, project manager of the Scottish Beaver Trial, explains: “This is the first formal trial reintroduction of a mammal ever to take place in the UK and it is really positive to see majority support for the reintroduction of beavers to Scotland.

“Separate feedback from several business owners in the Argyll area has also been positive and suggests that the Scottish Beaver Trial has boosted visitor numbers.

Call me an optimist, but with a majority of public support, documented financial benefit and the fact that there are already 150 free beavers in Scotland good sense might just tip the scales. My guess is that there will be a formal decision to reintroduce/tolerate the species with some kind of accommodation ruling that the animals can still be killed if they’re causing a problem, (to mollify the farmers). All in all it’s been a pretty good trial and a great public ad campaign for beavers. Where else did you ever read the word “coppice” besides this website before the Knapdale trial? Now its practically common knowledge.

Oh and finally, kudos to our indispensable Cheryl Reynolds, whose photos were on the CBS website yesterday when International Bird Rescue saved a family of duckings in the Fairfield Sears auto!

Congratulations Cheryl! Now hurry up and help all those baby birds being brought in every day, because you’ll soon need all your free time to devote to taking pictures of baby beavers.

Good Beaver Cheer

heidi08 Beaver Art, Beavers elsewhere, Creative Solutions December 13, 2013

Looks like I’m not the only one that was disappointed by the New Hampshire response to beavers this week. After I commented on the article I got an email from Linda Dionne asking me to testify for their anti-trapping bill. (I politely pointed out I was 3000 miles away.) Turns out they had an incident recently where a dog was caught in a conibear and they want to outlaw crush traps just like Massachusetts. (There was an earlier incident where a bald eagle was accidentally trapped and it was saved by a police officer. Here is their petition. Now Linda has this smart letter published in the Seacoast Online.

Beaver dams play a key role in the environment

Regarding the article (State removing ‘nuisance’ beavers near Exeter dam, Seacoast Sunday, Dec. 8) N.H. Fish and Game biologist Patrick Tate sounds ignorant about the importance beaver play in a healthy ecosystem. To call beaver a “nuisance animal” when they are nature’s best engineers and an important keystone species is inaccurate, unenlightened and negligent. Also, Mr. Tate seems to forget, or maybe never learned, of the recommendations of New Hampshire’s Wildlife Action Plan produced by the Nongame Program of N.H. Fish and Game, which recommends keeping beaver dams because they create “marshes, meadows and shrublands beneficial to many species of wildlife.” The Wildlife Action Plan recommends using beaver flow devices whenever possible. Flow devices maintain the beaver pond to a non-flooding level so the wetland is preserved for the long term. A healthy beaver pond is essential to a healthy environment.

Perhaps, though, Mr. Tate is simply trying to get more license money for N.H. Fish and Game. There is money to be made by N.H. Fish and Game by selling wildlife control operator (trapping) licenses and no money to be made in recommending the much better solution of using beaver flow control devices. Sad to say, when money is involved, everyone loses.

Linda Dionne

Great letter Linda! All I can say is good luck in outlawing traps because if we’ve learned ANYTHING from Massachusetts it’s that even when the battle is over, it’s never over.

Happy Birthday today to Cheryl who is still in a wheel chair and probably won’t be able to make the Worth A Dam ravioli feed this year. We will bring raviolis to her door, and activities to keep her occupied but it is hard for a woman who is used to birding and beavering in her spare time to sit at the window and wait to heal. Wish you the sweetest birthday, Cheryl!

Beaver Cake WM-30 — HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHERYL!

It was the best of times and – well you know the rest.

heidi08 Beaver Anatomy, Beaver Behavior, Beaver Rehabilitation, Beavers elsewhere, Who's Killing Beavers Now? October 11, 2013

Sometimes I go for days with no beaver news, but we’ve entered the dragnet of beaver stories, where I received round the clock reports of beaver killing in Arkansas, or Arcadia, or Price Edward Island. I guess everyone wants to get their dead beavers in a row before winter, but it’s a little depressing. Here are the highlights of misunderstanding.

Grand Falls-Windsor Newfoundland About 30 beavers are clogging up Corduroy Brook Trail in Grand Falls-Windsor, and several of their dams and lodges have caused flooding.”We want the beavers, beavers are a good attraction, and we want them to stay around. But if we didn’t control the populations, they’d eat themselves out of house and home,” he said.

Naimo British Columbia York said it is unlawful to interfere with traps, but if people do find them they should be reported immediately to conservation officers. York said there are live beaver traps available, but they are “remarkably ineffective” and when they do work it only means a beaver will end up being relocated into what is likely another beaver’s territory. Beavers are territorial. They are also a hazard to drainage and are not a conservation concern on Vancouver Island. “It’s just far more humane to use killing traps than it is to try and live-trap them,” York said.

WINFIELD, Indiana | Beavers continue to create problems in town by felling trees and building extensive dam structures in retention pondsAt the Sept. 24 Storm Water Board meeting, Clayton said licensed beaver trapper Tom Larson could remove the animals at a cost of $200 per beaver.

Jonesboro Arkansas: Rogers says animal control is not equipped to handle the beavers. The rodents can use their powerful jaws and teeth to chew through the toughest of steel traps.

Is it spring yet? There are more where that came from but that’s all I can stand at the moment. Here’s some lovely “glass half-full” moments to improve your mood.

sonoma kit — Sonoma Wildlife Kit – Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Our own Cheryl Reynolds got to visit the little rescued kit at Sonoma Wildlife yesterday. She held him and fed him strawberries and filmed while he took down the “ramp” in his tank and tried to use it as a floaty device. We Worth A Dam folks are understandably a bit jealous, as you might imagine. I wrote her yesterday and helpfully quoted Luke 12:48.

For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.

Just sayin’. Go donate to buy this little fellow more strawberries, medicine, cottonwood branches and whatever else he needs. We can give this little fellow a new start and we should. And thanks Cheryl, for giving us a ringside seat to his big adventure.

SRO at footbridge

heidi08 Festival July 22, 2013

kit and mom — Mom and her kit – Photo Cheryl Reynolds

Last night the beavers drew quite a crowd. Some were regulars, and some were part of Jack Laws sketchbook troop that weren’t able to make it wednesday. The beavers, as usual, did not disappoint. Cheryl was able to snap this excellent photo of mom and one of her three offspring while he or she decorated the earth with a lovely beaver whining sound!

Heard yesterday from National Wildlife Federation. They just heard of our event and want to feature it on their blog and would it be okay if they come and bring free copies of Ranger Rick for the kids?

Yesterday had more good news. I heard from Safari West that they were interested in bringing their Jr. Keepers down for the festival and wanted to know if they could help out, stay for dinner and see the beavers! Jr. Keepers 12-16 and make a fairly long-term commitment while they get training caring for the animals, docenting and public speaking, Which makes them expertly qualified to help with a beaver festival.