Martinez Beaver Deaths

No new deaths, but we continue to know nothing. All we know is what it isn’t. Not disease. Not Infection. Not toxoplasmosis. Not antifreeze. Not any toxic we have looked at, and we’re running our of beaver tissue to look at. I had a long conversation with the vet at CDFW yesterday and discussed the possibility of maybe doing a blood sample of one of the living beavers but she was very clear that this would only be useful if we knew what we were looking for.

And we don’t.

She said it was not worth traumatizing a beaver for very little information. And I was so relieved. Jon and I hated the thought anyway. One thing she did say is that the recently recovered beaver had apple in its stomach with a store bought label on it, and did we think anyone was feeding them? Or deliberately poisoning them?

Feeding, yes. Poisoning, who knows? So all we can do for now is keep a very close eye out and ask folks not to feed. The people who care about our beavers will stop, and the people who keep feeding will become suspects I guess.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

KTVU –

Yesterday we learned that the beaver body brought wednesday was too decomposed to provide any information on disease or tissue samples. To say this was devastating news was a vast understatement, because we were hoping that the small bright light of Junior’s death would be that he would point the way towards how to save the others.

But that apparently won’t be happening.

For a long while I dissolved into a puddle of panicked tears. If we couldn’t find out why the beavers were dying and we couldn’t stop it, then there was every reason to think we’d lose them all. Meanwhile there were numerous phone calls and messages saying this is terrible, or give us a quote, or I think “X” is killing them, always with the message that I should do something – DO SOMETHING – to stop this. Jon was treated to a dramatic Heidi breakdown when he said innocently that whatever I thought was best we would do.

BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!! I wailed.

I have listened to all the professionals that will talk to me, and called in everyone that I can think of. I have cc’d the feedback from the pathologist to everyone I can think of that might help, with more than a few hail-mary passes. Honestly, yesterday I was thinking, if our beavers are going to keep dying here, then we need to tear down the dam, rip out the flood wall so they can’t rebuild, stop them with a flotilla of boats and make them leave.

Somewhere they at least have a chance of being safe.

I eventually resigned myself to an advanced death patrol, thinking that if wednesday’s beaver was too decayed for information, we would have to get any other beaver that died to Davis more quickly. So I wrote the local supporters to get people to commit to looking up and down the creek every day. As of now we’re covered thru wednesday. So if you can help, drop me an email. We need all the help we can get.

Last night Dr. Travis Langcore of UCLA responded to one of my SOS’s with an article documenting toxoplasmosis as a cause of death in a young (5 month) beaver. He noted that “If you’ve got a lot of feral cats around the site, there will be a high burden of T. gondii oocysts, which cause it”. Which of course we do, and always have. The article discusses the fact that the cells didn’t show up in a normal autopsy and they had to be specially treated to be identified. Hmm. I sent this onto the vet and pathologist. Hopefully it will help. Hopefully something will.

Emily Dickinson said Hope is the thing with feathers. But of course readers of this website know better.

Hope is the stream with beavers

They form a dam with sticks

To catch the flow and water store

Where wildlife will mix

These survived a death decree

Endured a sheetpile wall

And triumphed when their mom was lost

So faith – in them – is all.