whole-crane1

The beaver friend who went to med school at North Western has been closely following the fate of the Illinois Lincoln Park beaver and now connected with a current med student who also happens to be a beaver fan. She recently took this photo and put it on wikipedia to highlight the plight of the urban beaver.

Along with the judiciously chosen quote.

	Few sightings of wild animals in Lincoln Park have caused as much excitement as when a beaver was spotted swimming across the middle of North Pond one winter day. Being a creature more associated with wilderness streams and rivers a beaver inside the city limits was unusual indeed.	”
	— Scott Holingue, Tales from an Urban Wilderness, 1994

The prescription for those beavers is obviously “take two physicians and call me in the morning.” I’m hoping for good things for the Lincoln Park Beavers.

From the ‘worst of times category’ I offer this recent news report about the resurgence of the use of Castoreum in French perfume. (Not for the faint of heart)

I got an email last night from a supporter in the South Bay asking for help for the beavers of his Alma Mater. Seems he went to med school at North Western and has family there. A brother wrote to say that the haggard beavers of Lincoln Park had just built a new lodge in North Pond.

From Lincoln Beaver-friend RH who took the photo.

I “discovered” the latest lodge yesterday morning. It is located on the recently manmade littoral shelf less than 150′ from the gazebo at North Pond in Lincoln Park.
The previous lodge was tucked away on the SE side of the pond, this one is on the NW side near a more heavily trafficked paved footpath as well as a restaurant (!). The head of the LP Conservation Society is a neighbor of mine. I’ll contact her asap.

Back in the early part of this year the parks department and the Conservancy wanted those beavers out. (Beavers eat trees. Lincoln Conservancy Protects Trees etc.) They hired the mirthlessly-named company “On Target Wildlife Control” to live trap and relocate the beavers, except mom beaver didn’t read the “live” label on her trap and subsequently drowned.

(Her orphans were successfully relocated. Does that count?)

These beavers have enough of a following that there are wikipedia updates and a facebook page about them. Still, when a nature conservancy has it in for you, you should never count your chickens. This morning I wrote them and the parks department, as well as the friendly author of this recent article. Hopefully a few others can follow suit.

I thought the idea of beavers being so near the zoo deserved a few reminders about the famous Jose and his recent starring role in September’s National Geographic. Why let the Bronx have all the glory? Embrace the North Pond Beavers, enlist some school children in planting willow and tracking wildlife, and wrap the special trees you can’t bear to share. You spent 4500 last time on a hugely bad publicity campaign. Why not do it right this time around?